On pride and humility

I am thinking about pride and humility this week. I realize that defeating pride and cultivation humility is a lifelong process. Spurgeon had these words to say on pride!

Again, pride is the maddest thing that can exist; it feeds upon its own vitals; it will take away its own life, that with its blood may make a purple for its shoulders: it sappeth, and undermineth its own house that it may build its pinnacles a little higher, and then the whole structure tumbleth down. Nothing proves men so made as pride. For this they have given up rest, and ease, and repose, to find rank and power among men: for this they have dared to risk their hope of salvation, to leave the gentle yoke of Jesus, and go toiling wearily along the way of life, seeking to save themselves by their own works, and at last to stagger into the mire of fell despair. Oh! man, hate pride, flee from it, abhor it, let it not dwell with thee. If thou wantest to have a madman in thy heart, embrace pride, for thou shalt never find one more mad than he.

Pride. . . changes its shape; it is all forms in the world; you may find it in any fashion you may choose, you may see it in the beggar’s rags as well as in the rich man’s garment. It dwells with the rich, and with the poor. The man without a shoe to his foot may be as proud as if he were riding in a chariot. Pride can be found in every rank of society—among all classes of men. Sometimes it is an Arminian, and talks about the power of the creature; then it turns Calvinist, and boasts of its fancied security—forgetful of the Maker, who alone can keep our faith alive. Pride can profess any form of religion; it may be a Quaker, and wear no collar to its coat; it may be a Churchman, and worship God in splendid cathedrals; it may be a Dissenter, and go to the common meeting-house; it is one of the most Catholic things in the world, it attends all kinds of chapels and churches; go where you will, you will see pride. It cometh up with us to the house of God; it goeth with us to our houses; it is found on the mart, and the exchange, in the streets, and everywhere.

. . .Pride will get into the Christian’s heart as well as the sinner’s—it will flourish under the name of self-sufficiency, teaching the Christian that he is “rich and increased in goods, having need of nothing.” It will tell him that he does not need daily grace, that past experience will do for to-morrow—that he knows enough, toils enough, prays enough. It will make him forget that he has “not yet attained;” it will not allow him to press forward to the things that are before, forgetting the things that are behind. It enters into his heart, and tempts the believer to set up an independent business for himself, and until the Lord brings about a spiritual bankruptcy, pride will keep him from going to God.

Pride has ten thousand shapes; it is not always that stiff and starched gentleman that you picture it; it is a vile, creeping, insinuating thing, that will twist itself like a serpent into our hearts. It will talk of humility, and prate about being dust and ashes. I have known men talk about their corruption most marvellously, pretending to be all humility, while at the same time they were the proudest wretches that could be found this side the gulf of separation. Oh! my friends, ye cannot tell how many shapes pride will assume; look sharp about you, or you will be deceived by it, and when you think you are entertaining angels, you will find you have been receiving devils unawaress.

Here is the whole sermon!

I am following up from some previous posts about listening to the Word of God in preaching. George Whitefield preached a message on Luke 8:18 and gave several directions for profitable preaching. On the importance of preaching he writes:

If you would receive a blessing from the Lord, when you hear his word preached, pray to him, both before, in, and after every sermon, to endue the minister with power to speak, and to grant you a will and ability to put in practice, what he shall show from the book of God to be your duty.

This would be an excellent means to render the word preached effectual to the enlightening and enflaming your hearts; and without this, all the other means before prescribed will be in vain.

No doubt it was this consideration that made St. Paul so earnestly entreat his beloved Ephesians to intercede with God for him: "Praying always, with all manner of prayer and supplication in the spirit, and for me also, that I may open my mouth with boldness, to make known the mysteries of the gospel." And if so great an Apostle as St. Paul, needed the prayers of his people, much more do those ministers, who have only the ordinary gifts of the Holy Spirit.

Besides, this would be a good proof that you sincerely desired to do, as well as to know the will of God. And it must highly profit both ministers and people; because God, through your prayers, will give them a double portion of his Holy Spirit, whereby they will be enabled to instruct you more fully in the things which pertain to the kingdom of God.

And O that all who hear me this day, would seriously apply their hearts to practice what has now been told them! How would ministers see Satan, like lightning, fall from heaven, and people find the word preached sharper than a two-edged sword, and mighty, through God, to the pulling down of the devil's strong holds!

The Holy Ghost would then fall on all them that hear the word, as when St. Peter preached; the gospel of Christ would have free course, run very swiftly, and thousands again be converted by a sermon.

For "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and for ever." He has promised to be with his ministers always, even unto the end of the world. And the reason why we do not receive larger effusions of the blessed Spirit of God, is not because our all-powerful Redeemer's hand is shortened, but because we do not expect them, and confine them to the primitive times.

May God be pleased to stir up a spirit of expectancy and a mighty spirit of prayer among His people and may congregregations across this land cry out, "Bring out the book!"

How do you prepare yourself for Sunday?

As I said in my last post, part of my preaching last Sunday involved providing some simple ways of how a person can prepare for Sunday. What are some ways that you personally prepare for Sunday? I would be interested to learn from you. So post a comment.

Preparing our children for Sunday

This past Sunday (3/26), I preached on the theme of listening to preaching (link will be up here soon for transcript; click here to listen. My son who usually puts up my messages is sick today). A few weeks ago I read Michael Fabarez's Preaching to Change Lives and the first life it changed was mine. I encouraged my congregation how to prepare before they come to hear God's Word, what to do during the actual preaching hour and then how to follow through and apply what they have heard.

I alluded how important it was to not only prepare our own lives for Sunday, but if we are parents to do the same. Providentially, CJ Mahaney posted a personal story about how he prepares his 13-year-old son for every Sunday. I especially liked how he went over some basics ways that his son could celebrate the Lord's Day as "the best day of the week" in "the dearest place on earth" (the church). He begins the article this way:

"Actually, as I understand it, parenting is all about preparation. I need to prepare Chad to fulfill his call as a man to serve and lead, and ultimately I must prepare him for the fast-approaching day of judgment. My approach to preparing Chad for the Sunday meeting has been informed by the doctrine of the church as clearly taught in Scripture and the Savior’s love for the church as compelling demonstrated on the cross. I want to inform my son theologically about the church and demonstrate for him a passion for the church."

Parents, the five minutes it will take you to read the article is well-worth it!

What's wrong with this picture?

I was born and raised in Toledo, OH, the home of the infamous Toledo Mud Hens and Tony Packo's world famous hot dogs. I always liked to follow politics, even local elections and remember a fellow named Carty Finkbeiner who was a city councilman when I grew up. Well, now he is the mayor of my hometown and last month he gave an impromptu speech about his religious journey. I was amused by this picture of Mayor Finkbeiner holding up two books that have influenced him in his spiritual path. What's wrong with this picture??? NO, I did not photoshop this one. If you want to read the whole article that describes his "search for God and purpose in life."

Leaving Egypt

I leave for Egypt in just a few hours. It has been hard waiting these past few days for our flight out, but the day is finally here. Today, we had a great time as a staff just talking about various theological issues and reflecting on the blessings of God in this past module. In the last month. the organization I worked with trained over 100 Christian leaders from the Middle East. We are looking forward to seeing 17 men graduate with a master of ministry degree this spring. The goal is to expand into several other countries in the next few years.

These leaders are now back in their cities, towns and villages laboring joyfully for their Master. Some traveled by train 5 hours to Cairo and then got on a bus and traveled to the conference center another 3 hours. Most of them will take the material they have learned and will teach it to scores of others in their churches.

We had two cohorts (groups) of students this year. One of the translators overheard some of the second year students talking on the first day to the new students who came. They said, "One thing you will learn by the time of the end of this week: that you don't really know the Bible." I learned that in seminary years ago. I went in thinking I knew a lot about the Bible and I left realizing that I would spend the rest of my life learning what I didn't know.

Above are some pics of me teaching with my translator. I will have many more to share with my church and others who supported me in the weeks ahead.

Lord willing, I will see many of you again soon!

Carnal Christians?

Paul wrote some words that are have been often misunderstood:

"But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready, for you are still of the flesh. 3 For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way? 4 For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not being merely human?" (1 Corinthians 3:1-4, ESV)

This text is often misinterpreted to argue that a Christian can receive Jesus as Savior and not as Lord! A popular organization published a booklet on this whole subject that was illustrated by three pictures. The first one had a picture of a throne and self sat on the throne, a picture of an unbeliver. The second had a picture of self on the throne with Christ in the corner representing their understanding of a "carnal" Christian. And the third had Christ on the throne and self in the corner which represented the obedient Christian.

This theology teaches that a carnal Christian is a person who believed in Jesus for salvation, but doesn't let Him be Lord, and doesn't let Him run his life. But there is a major problem with this interpretation for hat isn't at all what Paul had in mind in 1Corinthians 3, not at all. These believers were actively worshipping, calling on Jesus’ name, possessed great spiritual gifts, and were wrestling with some deep theological and ethical issues. These believers were “worldly in three ways: 1) they were not growing in their understanding and application of the Word of God. 2) they were jealous and quarreling and 3) they had succumbed to being divisive, one group claiming to follow one man and another another.

Let me state it clearly. Carnality is not a permanent state of Christians who have not given Christ Lordship. Carnality is simply a momentary experience of the Believer who is disobedient to God. So it is not a state, it is simply a kind of behavior. And all Christians at any given moment, are either Carnal or Spiritual, depending on whether you functioning in the Spirit or in the flesh. If you are sitting there and the Spirit

There are really only two categories of people in this world: Christians and non-Christians. There is no such thing as a “carnal” or “worldy Christian” in the popular sense most Christians use it today, although there are Christians whose behavior at the time reflects worldliness rather than Christlikeness.

Does the Bible teach the popular carnal Christian view? The answer is clearly no.

Ministering in Egypt

I have just spent eight days ministering to a group of 55 students in Egypt. As I write this I am still in Egypt, relaxing for a few days waiting to take off and return home where I can hardly wait to see my family once again.

These days of ministering have been some of the best in my life. I love the opportunity of ministering to these hungry students who have sacrificed so much for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord. Yesterday we capped off the teaching time by letting them share how God has moved in their hearts. God has done an amazing grace in so many of these students' lives for his glory.

One student said, “I learned that I haven’t been the person God wants me to be, but I am determined now by God’s grace to become the person He wants me to be!”

My class was on "The Principles and Practices of the Spiritual Life" and we covered many topics ranging from the Word of God to prayer to renewing the mind to dealing with temptation and learning how to know God's will and biblical decision making.

"As the deer pants for the water, so my soul pants after you!" Indeed these men are great examples of thirsting after God. They truly hunger and thirst after righteousness.

Above is a picture of the team that I ministered with it. Each had gifts that God used together to minister in an effective way. The teachers included a missionary from Cambodia who exhibited graciousness and a great love for the students, a pastor from NC who helped many of the students learn for the first time how to interpet the Bible consistently and correctly, and another pastor from SC who has served the Lord in Togo previously and connected with students very effectively as he instructed them in an introduction to NT survey. Also in the team was ourvisionary general director, our academic dean who handled the logistics of the trip flawlessly and with grace, a translator who superbly served us and gave his all, and a man who came along to video and ended up being my roommate-- who ministered in so many ways it would be hard to list them all. What a humbling to serve with a team of men who God assembled for such a time as this.