Piper and Meyer Talk Succession for the First Time
Acts 13 right in front of our eyes. I pray this multiplies over and over for the glory of God.
Worthy Words
Obduracy—stubbornly refusing to change one’s opinion or course of action.
ORIGIN late Middle English (originally in the sense ‘hardened in sin, impenitent’): from Latin obduratus, past participle of obdurare, from ob- ‘in opposition’ + durare ‘harden’ (from durus ‘hard’).
In conversation…
Sin is a mighty, all pervasive dictator in the human heart. It is implacable, insatiable, and immoveable. The obduracy of our flesh is governed and empowered by the obstinacy of sin’s rebellion against God. Our only hope is the power of the Holy Spirit. Our flesh will avail nothing. Our attempts at reform will fail. Only faith in the saving grace of Jesus Christ and the indwelling new life of the Spirit conquers sin and sets the soul at liberty.
Worthy Words
Language is a vehicle of revelation. The more words we know and understand the more revelation we have of purpose, beauty, life, and ultimately God. A growing vocabulary increases our capacity for seeing, hearing, and giving the good news of Jesus.
“Worthy Words” is an ongoing series of posts highlighting words that have impacted me in my studies or conversations. Take these words, learn them, and then use them to see God more clearly and give God more completely.
Antinomy—a contradiction between two beliefs or conclusions that are in themselves reasonable; a paradox
ORIGIN late 16th cent. (in the sense ‘a conflict between two laws’): from Latin antinomia, from Greek, from anti ‘against’+nomos ‘law’
In conversation…
God is to be worshipped because He has revealed Himself in clear ways. We easily perceive His power, wisdom, love, mercy, forgiveness, and grace. These facets of God that are understood must not limit who we worship though. We love to make God in our image and understandable but this is not the God of the Bible. He is also mysterious. He is free and sovereign and all knowing and perfect and holy. The revelation God has given us of Himself in the scripture is often one antinomy after another. Rather than laboring to solve what seems to contradict might we allow these points of paradox to produce fervent thankfulness that though we are in His image, our God is wholly other than us.
The Joy of Seeing Your Sin.
As a pastor I receive multiple calls and emails from various people in need of counseling. Some of these calls, emails, and meetings are, to be frank, quite infuriating. The conversation is usually comprised of an individual who’s sin is wrecking their life. I, as I should, give the Biblical remedy of repentance and faith. In many cases this is not the remedy that is desired. The individual responds with anger, frustration, and points the finger at me as the terrible pastor who can’t counsel.
Then there are mornings like I had today. I received one of those emails from a dear brother in my church desperate to talk. When I called him, on the other line I heard weeping and desperation. “Pastor, God woke me early this morning and began showing me what my sin looks like in His eyes!” This precious brother’s weeping was uncontrolled. He was gasping and crying out to God and his pastor for comfort. He went on, “Danny, hell is real, I see it, I feel it, my sin merits this hell. Oh God, Oh God, Oh God save me from this hell, save me from my sin.”
Though filled with anguish, tears, and even fear, as this man wept on I felt joy surge through my soul. I calmed him and explained that God in his grace in certain seasons of the believers life will ever more increase that believers awareness of his sin. This isn’t to crush or defeat the soul but to reveal how holy God is. This process reveals how infinite His mercy is in forgiving wretches like ourselves. This horrific revelation opens our eyes to God’s unmerited grace and rich accepting love. It’s beautiful, it’s wonderful, it’s joy producing.
As my brother cried out, “Oh God I’m sorry, so sorry, I’m sorry for everything. Pastor, I’m sorry for what I am and what I’ve done.” I rejoiced. I know that as this brother runs to Jesus throughout the rest of the day in broken repentance and faith his Father will comfort him with the joy of Jesus on the cross for all His sin.
Some of this man’s final words to me this morning were, “Pastor, they all, everyone needs to see this. Hell is real Danny, our sin is so, so terrible. Oh, that everyone would see this!”
Pray. Ask God to let you see your sin. Be prepared. You will weep. You will break. Repent and trust Jesus. He who knew your sin became your sin for you that you might be the righteousness of God. Rejoice dear sinner, rejoice!
The Lord God has given me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with a word him who is weary. Morning by morning he awakens; he awakens my ear to hear as those who are taught.
—The Prophet Isaiah
What’s Your Motivation?
What we do is always undergirded by what motivates us.
We may be doing right things with wrong motivations. This is the plight of the human heart. It’s always messed up. God, by His grace though, is always uncovering these false motivations and replacing them with right ones. He does this through mercifully leading us to repentance and then filling us with the Holy Spirit. Our motivations will never be perfect for doing what we do but when we discover that Jesus’ motivations were always perfect, and He lived perfectly for us, we’re free to do what we do out of that context.
Here’s some of the wrong motivations we let govern us.
1. Personal Fulfillment—In the name of being filled with personal joy and peace we are motivated to do or say certain things. The problem is the focus is self and self service. It’s an inwardly directed motivation that leads to using others. Jesus said, “deny yourselves and pick up your crosses.” The miraculous nature of self denial is that a greater fulfillment satisfies the heart as one seeks to lose his life for the glory of Jesus and others.
2. People pleasing—Proverbs 29:25 says that “The fear of man is a snare.” If you think carefully about why you make the decisions you make, say what you say, do what you do I guarantee at the root of it is the overwhelming desire to be applauded by people, accepted by people, not rejected, not unseen. So, rather than being motivated by what God sees and says about us we are motivated by fallen men’s opinions, criticisms, and praise.
3. Earning God’s favor— This is a continual temptation for the Christian. Our thoughts go like this. “I really want God’s blessings and favor so if I do this activity, or serve this way, or say or don’t say this or that, then I’ll merit what I want from God.” This motivation is the complete opposite of gospel motivation. Eph 1 says that we have all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies through Jesus. This means that you can’t be any more loved, any more cherished, any more protected, any more blessed by God than you are right now. YOU HAVE IT ALL in Jesus! That changes everything in the way we think about doing what we do.
Let’s close with some right motivations for doing what you do today.
1. Jesus Christ is Alive! Today do what you do because Jesus is living, watching, protecting, loving, guiding, and all about you. Because He’s alive and conquered our wrong motivations we don’t have to gain His favor or blessings, they are ours! Because He lived with perfect motivations we don’t have to reform ours in our own strength.
2. Jesus has prepared and purposed your works! Eph 2:10 says that God created us and saved us for good works, that He prepared before hand, and we simply walk in them. That’s a wonderfully healthy motivation today to know that God has already set up His purposes for you and you get to peacefully walk into them and accomplish them in His strength. No striving, no worrying, no frenzied pace. Just enjoy the walk.
3. Jesus energizes you for the activity! In Collossians 1:29 Paul said he struggled and toiled with all the energy that God mightily worked in Him. Right motivations for work, service, prayer, fellowship, Bible study have their energy in the Holy Spirit. Depend on God today for the energy to do the works He’s called you to and there will be a present joy fueling your labors.
4. Jesus wants the world to know Him! Let the truth that everything you say or do today is for the sake of bringing others to know Jesus. It’s an amazing motivation to go hit the daily grind not just to bring home a paycheck but for the sake of giving Jesus to your co-workers. There’s a supernatural empowerment in raising kids, studying for school, hanging with friends, enjoying dinner time conversations, serving in the church, and every other activity under the sun when motivated by a desire to see everyone around us know Jesus.
Take time and repent of your wrong motivations, ask Jesus to fill you with Holy Spirit energized right motivations, and watch how your heart, attitudes, and life increase in effectiveness.
Worthy Words
Language is a vehicle of revelation. The more words we know and understand the more revelation we have of purpose, beauty, life, and ultimately God. A growing vocabulary increases our capacity for seeing, hearing, and giving the good news of Jesus.
“Worthy Words” is an ongoing series of posts highlighting words that have impacted me in my studies or conversations. Take these words, learn them, and then use them to see God more clearly and give God more completely.
Procrustean—(esp. of a framework or system) enforcing uniformity or conformity without regard to natural variation or individuality.
ORIGIN mid 19th cent.: from the name Procrustes+an
Word Origin & History
1846 in figurative sense of “aiming to produce conformity byarbitrary means,” from Procrustes (1583), mythical robber ofAttica who seized travelers, tied them to his bed, and eitherstretched their limbs or lopped of their legs to make them fit it.The name is Gk. Prokroustes “one who stretches,” from
prokrouein “to beat out, stretch out,” from pro- “before” +krouein “to strike.”
In conversation…
The people of the church are a forceful lot. It seems what is easily forgotten is the freedom of the gospel in life and practice. A “church culture” subtly demands that there be uniformity of dress, language, art, poetry, politics, education, and a whole host of items. With procrustean fervor we force converts into our mold and firmly rebuke the rebels who remind us that we are saved by Jesus work alone.
Our help is in the name of the Lord,
who made heaven and earth.
—King David
My brown eyed baby rolls over 7 today. 7 years of pure, sweet, wonderful joy. (Taken with instagram)
Leadership Lessons from Deadliest Catch
I love Deadliest Catch. My wife says it’s my “man soap opera”. Every Tuesday I settle into my couch with a cold one and live vicariously through the crazy captains of the Bearing Sea.
This post is light hearted so take it for what it’s worth, but I’ve learned some things about church planting/pastoral leadership from those men. The following is a summation of hours and hours of Deadliest Catch rerun marathons.
1. They are focused on the mission.
Catch crab.
“Juicy, succulent, glorious, King crab…” Keith Colburn, Wizard
“If you were a crab, what would you do? Where would you go? That’s my mind.” Joe Berg, Saga
“Right now I’m worried about catching crab whether the ding-dongs (the crew) ever get off fantasy island or not!” Phil Harris, Cornelia Marie
Nothing diverts their attention. Every decision they make is determined by the end result. Will this cause us to catch more crab or not. Everything revolves around that one center and the captains never lose sight of the target. Catch crab.
Church planter/pastor, catch men. Our mission is to be fishers of men. Our discipleship, prayers, studies, relationships, and work have at the center of them the mission of catching men for the Kingdom of Jesus. Stay focused, assess what your basing your decisions on, course correct, and catch men.
2. They lead.
“It’s a crab boat, not a democracy. There’s one guy in charge and I’m him.” Phil Harris, Cornelia Marie
In a sappy, don’t hurt my feelings, don’t tell me what to do world, leaders are accused, berated, lied about, opposed, criticized, maligned, and hated. The crab boat captains of Deadliest Catch don’t care. They lead the mission and the men they lead follow.
These are the most non-pastoral leadership quotes I’ve ever heard, but they are awesome.
“They hate you for a while when they’re tired and hungry but they get over it. If you don’t like it then get the hell off!” Sig Hansen, North Western
“I have a lot of pride in what I do, I have a lot of pride in my boat. I expect my crew to be the same way.” Keith Colburn, Wizard
“I’d love to tell you it’s skill but I’d be full of *&%* up to my eyebrows. They don’t know that though.”
Jesus is the captain. You take your orders from Him and no one else. Pray, listen, repent, obey and His mission will be accomplished. If you compromise Jesus’ core convictions in the name of not unsettling the crew that boat will sink and people will die.
3. They are sober about the work.
“It’s good to be scared, it’s good to be afraid. If you weren’t THEN I’d be concerned.” Sten Skaar, North American
These men know that they are on the edge of death every moment on the job. They have fun, joke around, play pranks, but always underneath it is a sober awareness of the danger. They make their crews follow for the sake of their safety.
Satan lurks like a lion seeking to devour us and our churches. We should be having the most fun of anyone but always with that sober, watchful eye on ourselves, our families, and our churches.
4. It’s a calling they’ll never leave.
“If you want to be stressed out, you want to be cranky, hungry, tired…run a crab boat. The funny part about it is, I wouldn’t trade it for the world.” Phil Harris, Cornelia Marie
I’ve always watched and been inspired by these guys. They weather the cold and storms and mutiny every season. Their health is rough at best, their stress is through the roof, their struggles and suffering are almost unbearable. Yet, every season, there they are.
Why? I don’t think it’s the money. It’s in their blood.
“Why do I keep doing it? I don’t have to. I have investments and property. I’m pretty well set up. But it’s in your blood. You gotta go.” Jonathan Hillstrand, Time Bandit
They are sailors and they fish for crab and that’s all they can do.
“Now my advice to anyone that wants to do this is stay in school. Learn to be something, cause this will kill ya. This isn’t for everybody, you gotta be a little bit twisted to do this job.” Phill Harris, Cornelia Marie
I’ve told many 20-25 year old men the exact same thing. Do something else if you can. Don’t plant a church or pastor a flock because it seems like a good idea. I say it firmly because I know the ones that are called won’t be able to do anything but plant/pastor and lead.
Let’s go fishing gentlemen.
