The little church

"A holy family is a place of comfort, a church of God... Oh that God would stir up the hearts of people thus to make their families as little churches, that it might not be in the power of rulers or pastors that are bad to extinguish religion, or banish godliness from any land!"  

Richard Baxter

I've long been concerned about the direction of our country regarding the things of God.  It seems that in the last decade or so the country has gone from a walk to a sprint in attempting to escape the idea that this country was founded on godly principles by mainly God-fearing people.  I have a lot of suspicions as to why this is happening, but the reason isn't what I'd like to focus on in this post.  

No matter the direction of the country, we as Christians are called to honor God in our homes and in our lives.  Having said that, when a man is present in one of our homes it is his responsibility to see that this happens.  Are we doing that men?  Baxter posits, and I think rightly, that no matter the direction leaders or pastors go in our country it is our responsibility to lead our families in a godly direction.  

How do we do that?  First we must watch diligently our walk with the Lord.  If we are not passionately pursuing Christ, we'll never lead the family to do that.  Are you studying each day? Are you praying each day?  Does your faith inform the way you work?  Do people know your a Christian just by watching you?  Second we must employ Scripture's commands regarding our families.  They are many, but suffice it to say God's glory is to be our focus in all aspects of our family life.  We must love our wives as Christ loves the Church, we are to train our children in the way they should go.  Third we must ask God to empower us to do it every day!  Leading your family is an every day thing; even when we are tired when we get home.

If we do these things, I don't see any way our families will be led astray.  And if our families are solid, I promise our churches will be solid.  Church leaders, I'd suggest that we begin focusing on having solid biblical families in our churches.  Getting to dads has to be number one on the priority list. 

May God graciously grant that we have solid homes no matter what direction America goes.

God Bless

Follow me

Today was a great Lord's Day!  I've really enjoyed it a lot.  This morning we gathered at church for our worship service and I felt God poured out His Spirit on us.  We then shared our fellowship meal and enjoyed one another as only Christians can.  I love the Lord's Day, and it's one of the great mercies of this life as we look forward to the life to come.  May we protect our Lord's Day and not allow it to be just another day.

This morning I preached through Mark 1:16-20, the text where Jesus says to Simon, Andrew, James, and John "Come follow me."  He promises to make these lowly fishermen into "fishers of men,"  a play on words to show what they'd do in bringing men and women into the kingdom.  When I talked about what it's like to follow Jesus I borrowed some points from an essay by J.C. Ryle called Authentic Religion, it was a very convicting sermon for me as I recognize shortcomings in my own life and ministry.

Are we following Jesus?  Truly following Jesus involves sitting at His feet and learning from Him.  It involves forsaking our own way to follow Him.  It's a full-blown takeover by Jesus our Lord.  If we're to be fishers of men, we must follow the Master.

God Bless

Puritan Evangelism

My Lord's Day practice often includes reading a book after I get home from church.  Once we eat dinner and put the kids down for a nap I like to lay down and read a bit.  It often results in me falling asleep, but I try to read some at least before fading.  I encourage my people to make the Lord's Day the Lord's Day as much as possible, not that we can't do other things, but we should be protective of the Lord's Day so that we can really pursue Him.  

So today I'm reading a book called Puritan Evangelism by Joel Beeke.  I like Beeke's preaching and writing quite a bit and would recommend checking him out sometime.  The book is meant to encourage us to take a biblical approach in evangelism.  The thing that has been revealed to me more than any other in the years since my salvation is the emptiness of much of our modern evangelism techniques. I want us to be zealous preachers, but we need to make sure we are biblical in our effort.  The old saying is it's better to have one true convert that grows and truly follows Christ than fifty that fall away or live a carnal life.  

I think the Puritans would posit that faithfully and truthfully proclaiming God's Word will produce true conversions that will bear fruit; that's what I long for, to see people gloriously saved who'll bear fruit for years to come.  We can certainly learn some things from this group of people about being faithful to God and His Word.  They weren't perfect, but they were zealous in their walk with the Lord.  If you've not read anything on the Puritans you may check out a book or two, recognizing that certain authors will set out to cast them in a bad light.  I've read a few books on Puritans including A Quest For Godliness by J.I. Packer and this book which are very intriguing.  Interesting stuff!

I've had impressed upon my heart in the last weeks that I've lacked zeal in the area of evangelism.  It's driven me to my knees.  There have been tears shed and I've called out to God to change my heart.  These kinds of books are challenging to me to be zealous for the conversion of souls and biblical in the proclamation of the Gospel.  May we be people who pray for the opportunity to share this glorious news of Jesus Christ and Him crucified and risen from the dead.

God Bless

Fellowship

"If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin."  1 John 1:7

I looked forward to the Lord's Day this week and it didn't disappoint!  We gathered for worship Sunday morning and for the first time in weeks most of our people were there.  Sickness has ravaged our church this winter and a lot of individuals and families have missed multiple Sundays.  For me, this creates a longing to see people because I love the gathering of God's people and when all of our people are together there's just something very powerful there.  We did miss a few people, so there was still an incompleteness to some extent, but we just had more than we've had in some time.  

I need the Lord's Day a lot!  I'm sure that's the testimony of all of God's people.  It's a day for individual worship, a day for individual prayer, a day for gathering with God's people for corporate worship and corporate prayer in addition to the sweet fellowship that goes on when God's people gather.   If you are a Christian and you're reading this post and you don't have this experience on the Lord's Day, you need to ask God to give it to you.  Do you pursue Christ in a special way on Sunday?  Do you spend more time with Him?  Do you get together with a group of people (small or large) to worship Him?  Do you have people that you worship with that you speak of the things of God with?  If you answer these questions "no" I'd make it a serious issue of prayer.

We have a fellowship meal every second and fourth sunday at our church, and it's a great blessing.  The best part this week however was the conversations I had with some men of our church after the meal.  We sat for quite some time discussing the things of God, our walk, our country, our families etc.  We encouraged one another, and I came away from it with my spirit lifted.  I love to have men around me who are passionately following Jesus Christ!  Again, if you are a Christian man and you don't have this, you must ask God to reveal why and you must seek it out.  Our primary encouragement comes from our fellowship with God in the reading of His Word and prayer, but Christian fellowship is critical.  

I'll leave you with this challenge.  This week, when church is over, talk to people about the Lord.  Talk about the sermon (only positively!).  Talk about the things of God.  Share the Gospel with a Christian! Pursue Christian fellowship this week.

God Bless 

Desiring God Pastors Conference

Well we're back home!  As some of you may know I got the opportunity this week to go to a pastors conference put on by the Desiring God ministry of Dr. John Piper in Minneapolis.  To make the opportunity even more special I got to meet up with four friends from high school at the conference.  

Let me tell you a quick story.  When I was a sophomore in high school I transferred from a high school in Waterloo IA to a high school in LaPorte City IA.   Upon my transfer I made some new friends among whom were three of the four guys I met at the conference this week.  The fourth guy was the younger brother of one of my friends who also went to the same school.  What's amazing about the whole thing is that we had very little idea if any that God would call us all to pastoral ministry (especially me since I was yet unsaved!)  But God works in mysterious ways and He has called us all to ministry, a work of Providence that amazes us to this day.  We were once foolish young kids, but Monday through Wednesday we met for worship and fellowship that left us changed forever.

The conference was awesome as it dealt with the topic of evangelism.  I think it's every pastor's desire to grow in his evangelistic zeal, and I'm certainly no different.  The speakers at the conference were Mark Dever, Matt Chandler, Michael Oh, and of course John Piper.  The conference was both challenging and encouraging and to even try to point out highlights would take too much time.  I think the consensus was that Matt Chandler's talk was tremendously edifying and challenging.  He's a young guy like me who pastors in Texas.  If you've not heard him, I'd get on youtube and check him out, a great communicator with a love for God.

I am attaching on my blog a couple of pictures from the conference.  Just to update, I've now touched John MacArthur, John Piper, and Matt Chandler!  Amazing.  Oh that God would make me an evangelist with an insatiable desire to make His name great among the nations.

God Bless