Nothing More Unnatural Than Pride?

On page 62 of Wayne Mack's, Humility (the best book I've read on the subject), we quotes Charles Spurgeon who said: "Pride is a thing which should be unnatural to us because we have nothing to be proud of."

Isn't that so true!?!

Four Landmines in Ministry

While waiting to listen to John Piper at the Resurgence Conference, I am currently listening to a message from the Dallas Theological Seminary podcast by Robert Jeffress on The Four Landmines of Ministry.

These landmines, with some insights from the sermon, are:

1. Silver (= money) -- "Money is like salt water, the more you take in thirstier you get."
2. Sloth (= laziness) -- "We all have a little bit of laziness in us, and you can go a long time before laziness will catch up with you, but it will catch up with you. Expect to work hard, the lack there of will destroy your ministry!
   
3. Sex -- Most people know someone who has had to step down from ministry for sexual immorality; the dark shadow of your immorality will accompany you always and forever as the heartache you cause will be inestimable as "the way of the transgressor is hard"
   
4. Self -- My life is either God-focused or self-focused and the most basic issue we have to settle is who's kingdom are you building: God's or yours! It's one or the other. It can't be both!
   

Along these lines, if you have more time on your hands, go to this website, search for the name Donald Whitney and listen to his message "The Almost Inevitable Ruin of Every Minister...and How to Avoid It"--one of the best I've ever heard!

2008 Resurgence Conference Live

If you'd like to watch, or just listen in the background, to some good preaching over the next couple days, make sure you check out the 2008 Resurgence Conference here.

You can choose the speakers you want to listen to (Mark Driscoll, C.J. Mahaney, Matt Chandler, Jim Gillmore, John Piper) and then make sure you're online when they start.

I hope you enjoy. I have it on in the background while I do research so I just listened to the end Mark Driscoll's first message (and it was really good) and now I'm excitedly anticipating C.J.'s in 5 minutes!

True Approval

Another quote from my research, this time from J.A. Motyer's commentary on Philippians 4:4.

To those of us who, sadly and pathetically, seem to long and live for the approval of others he writes, "The essence of the matter is so to value Jesus Christ, and so to long for the smile of his approval, that nothing else matters. He is all our joy" (Philippians 210).

Anxiety and Prayer

I'm preaching on Philippians 4:4-9 this coming weekend, and while commenting on verse 6 ("Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God"), D.A. Carson writes, "I have yet to meet a chronic worrier who enjoys an excellent prayer life" (Basics for Believers 112).

Lord, may that characterize me, please!

Self-Promotion

I'm doing research for my sermons coming up this week and came across this quote from A.W. Tozer: "...egotism, exhibitionism, self-promotion, are strangely tolerated in Christian leaders even in circles of impeccable orthodoxy. ... Promoting self under the guise of promoting Christ is currently so common as to excite little notice" (italics mine; from The Pursuit of God, 45-46).

God, give me the discernment I need for my own sin-filled heart so as to keep me from such an egregious sin (as I post on a blog that millions could read).

Should We Be Ashamed At This?

According to the National Council of Churches' 2008 Yearbook of American & Canadian Churches the two fastest growing "church" bodies are Jehovah's Witnesses and the Mormons. Read a summary of the report here.

How Do I Know God's "Guidance"?

One of my favorite modern author / speakers is Mark Dever, pastor of Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington D.C.

He write a helpful post here about the dangerous way many Christians seek "God's will" or "divine guidance." I hear Christians talk about this topic almost every single day so having helpful correctives like this one are always necessary.

Called to Seminary?

Thank you to Between Two Worlds for this very helpful post for those called to the ministry who must consider seminary or at least some kind of theological education.

Purposeful Praise: Rejuvenating Your Christian Life

We had a great weekend at Compass Bible Church with the best part being the preaching of God's Word from Psalm 100! If you missed it, go here to watch it. If you were here this weekend, to jar your memory, the points from Pastor Mike's sermon were:

1. Celebrate God (vv. 1-2)
2. Worship God because He is God (v. 3)
3. Worship God because He is Good (vv. 4-5)

How did God use Pastor Mike's sermon on Psalm 100 to speak to you this week?

Sovereign Grace February Sale!!!

If you enjoy the ministry of C.J. Mahaney and Joshua Harris, or if you enjoy solid, biblical, life-altering resources (books, CDs, etc.) than you need to know that for the next 12 days Sovereign Grace Ministries is having a huge sale.

I'm sorry I didn't make it known earlier, but this site is FULL of good stuff at hugely discounted prices. If you're not sure what's good, the books I'd recommend are Living the Cross-Centered Life, Humility, and Pastor Dale's wife Shawna told me last week that she puts Feminine Appeal right under the Bible as her favorite.

Also, the CDs I recommend are Songs for the Cross-Centered Life, West Coast Revival (especially the song "Here with Christ") and Worship God Live (if you liked the song "Jesus, Thank You" from this weekend at Compass that song is on this CD).

One final thing, all the messages by all the speakers are always online for free download. Speakers include C.J. Mahaney, Carolyn Mahaney, Joshua Harris, John Piper and R.C. Sproul--if you want recommended messages, let me know in the comments. Happy hunting!!!

Boys Adrift

Like many, I've been struck by the alarming trends in male development that I've seen not only in society, but also in myself.

Well, I just heard pieces of a fascinating interview of Leonard Sax, Ph.D. on Coast to Coast AM about his new book Boys Adrift: The Five Factors Driving the Growing Epidemic of Unmotivated Boys and Underachieving Young Men.

In case you're wondering, the five factors are...
1. Video Games
2. Teaching Methods
3. Prescription Drugs
4. Endocrine Disruptors
5. Devaluation of Masculinity

If you're interested in this topic, read an introduction to the book here and find some interesting articles here.

How to Pray for Free

You can download this classic on prayer, R.A. Torrey's, How To Pray, as an audiobook from christianaudio.com--regular 12.98--for absolutely nothing when you follow the directions here.

They give a way a different audio book every month so it's well worth checking in on this site periodically.

Ambassadors: Buiding Bridges for God's Kingdom

What was your reaction to Pastor Mike's message this weekend from 2 Corinthians 5:17-21?

Just to remind you, his three points were:
1. Love Your Neighbor (vv. 17, 21)
2. Embrace Your Job (vv. 18-19)
3. Start "Representing" (v. 20)

If you missed it you can watch it here, or if you just want to listen to it go here.

Has God Called You...to be a Pastor?

Here's a short, insightful article by Dr. Al Mohler on the call to pastoral leadership. Does it describe you?

I was pleasantly surprised to read that his description of the call to ministry is what I've been telling myself and other men for years now--always good when what you say is confirmed by those you respect!

I'm at the DG Pastor's Conference!!!

After being snowed in at O'Hare in Chicago for 24 hours and braving some 20 degree weather (see some pics here), we finally made it to the 2008 Desiring God Pastors' Conference. Honestly, I sat there for the first session this morning and tears came to my eyes as I thought, "I can't believe God brought me here. What a blessings! What a kind and gracious God!"

Aside from hanging out with the staff and seeing some guys from seminary (and eating Giordano's famous pizza) the highlight for me as definitely been John Piper's biography of his father. You should hit that link and listen to it as fast as possible--I thought the best part was the conclusion!

However, the one thing I wish Dr. Piper would've talked about was his mom. His dad was a traveling evangelist, meaning he was gone all that time, so it seems to me that his mom did most of the parenting.

I'd love to hear a tribute to her as well, so I wrote this as a question and dropped it in the drop box. Hopefully, they'll choose it for the Q & A tomorrow. Who knows? We'll see!