EVERY SPHERE
  • Home
  • About
  • Walking Points
  • A Far Green Country
  • Bible Studies
    • Old Testament Essentials
    • Ephesians: Growing Up in Christ
    • Sermons & Etc
    • Philippians
    • Costly Discipleship
    • Lord of All
    • Living Wisely in Turbulent Times
    • 1 Samuel
    • Gospel of John
    • A Different Gospel
    • Southside Life Group Studies
    • A Light Unto Our Path
    • The God We Worship
  • Podcast
  • Prayer Journal
    • Heidelberg Catechism
  • My Books
  • My YouTube
  • Other Resources
    • Spiritual Power
    • Spiritual Life Checkup
    • Spiritual Direction
    • Apologetics
    • Master Plan of Evangelism
    • Wesleyan Methodist Links
    • Favorites >
      • Pastoral Ministry
      • C.S. Lewis
      • Lewis and Schaeffer
      • Richard Baxter
      • The Puritans

My Favorite Men's Ministry Websites

4/4/2016

0 Comments

 
Picture
Since I first wrote this post, I put together a great page of links to websites and blogs for ministering to men. You can click here to check it out. However, the ones below are still fantastic and I encourage you to visit them when you're able.

For this Top Ten I wanted to share some of the websites that have blessed me regarding ministry to men. However, because I’ve come across so many helpful websites on this subject, carving this down to ten is, I’m sure, an injustice to others that ought to be included.

Part of my criteria for choosing which websites make my Top Ten list is that the website has to be useful. In other words, the ministry that a website represents may be phenomenal and doing great things for the Kingdom. However, if the website itself doesn’t do much more than tell me a few interesting things about the ministry, then it’s not very useful as an online resource. Thus, the websites I like most are the ones that provide articles, devotionals, podcasts, YouTube videos, social media connections, newsletters, etc. That’s how I decided which ones to include on this and every Top Ten list.

PS – The following websites are focused more on ministering to men “in general.” I’ll include Top Ten lists later that will focus on top websites for fathers, husbands, etc.

This list is in no particular order… except for the first one, because I believe it is far and away the best.

1.) Man in the Mirror Ministries with Pat Morley – Morley and company are the premier thinkers in the world of ministering to men. Their website is super user-friendly. You can read countless articles on men’s ministry, men’s issues, etc. You can download and listen to men’s Bible studies taught by Morley or watch them online. You can also sign up for a number of training events that Man in the Mirror holds or purchase some fantastic resources online. Great website that goes well with an incredible ministry to men.

2.) Every Man Ministries with Kenny Luck

3.) Top Gun Men’s Ministries

4.) Men’s Stuff at CrossWalk.com

5.) New Man Magazine

6.) Men’s Ministry at Bible.org

7.) Church for Men

8.) Live Bold       

9.) Christian Businessmen Connection

10.) Men’s Ministry Catalyst

Grace and Truth,
Dale

0 Comments

What's in a Name?

9/18/2015

0 Comments

 
You got it from your father
It was all he had to give
So it’s yours to use and cherish
For so long as you may live.
If you lose the watch he gave you
It can always be replaced
But a black mark on your name, son
Can never be erased
.

It was clean the day you took it
And a worthy name to bear.
When he got it from his father
There was no dishonour there
.

So make sure you guard it wisely,
After all is said and done
You’ll be glad the name is spotless
When you give it to your son
.

Author Unknown

 I would agree that the poem above could provoke a great deal of stress and pressure in a young boy’s life (not to mention his father’s). No one’s “name” is that pure. And, to be sure, without God’s grace and the power and guidance of God’s Spirit, no one will go through life with an unblemished record. Still… I like the poem as something to bear in mind as I encourage and help my sons navigate their way through life. One day, as part of that instruction and encouragement, I will have to share a few times when their father got quite a few dark smudges on the family name. And then I shall remind them of the precious Gospel of Jesus Christ.

(By the way, if you want to see an incredibly powerful presentation on the significance of one’s name, watch this scene from The Crucible. In this scene, John Proctor accepts a death sentence for something for which he was innocent, rather than passing on a blemished name to his sons. After several years of searching for this scene, I finally found it. There is a short and helpful little commentary at the beginning… which is worth watching as well. But by all means, please watch the scene that follows it.)

And while I’m feeling like imparting some inspiration to my sons… here’s a great video-version of Rudyard Kipling’s “If.”
0 Comments

Hero of the Faith: Gerard Groote

9/18/2015

0 Comments

 
Picture
In the previous post, I mentioned a book by George Grant that radically changed how I think, minister, etc. It’s called The Micah Mandate. Once again, I highly recommend it! I would now like to share how God used an audio-taped message (also by George Grant) about an obscure man from the pages of history whom most folks have never heard of, to bless my life and ministry in ways I could not even have imagined as I put the tape into the tape-player of my car. Here’s what I wrote over a decade ago…

Earlier this year God poured his grace upon me as he placed in my hands an audiotaped lecture entitled, “Gerard Groote and the Brethren of the Common Life.” Providentially, this also was by George Grant. I can’t express how moved I was by what I heard in this message. In this lecture Grant basically revealed what a biblical worldview should look like in the  “everydayness” of a Christian’s life and ministry. He accomplished this by sharing God’s work and power in and through the life of a man named Gerard Groote. Groote lived in the 14th century, and, as Grant says at the beginning of his address,

“It would be difficult to find a single page of modern history written about him. But it would be even more difficult to find a single page of modern history not affected by him.”

Below are the notes I took from Grant’s message on Groote. I’m sure much won’t translate to this format. But I believe the ideas taught and lived out by Groote and expounded by Grant are more than worth passing on and meditating upon.

Enjoy,
Dale
.

Notes on Gerard Groote: Brethren of the Common Life

Based on a lecture by George Grant

  • Some men’s greatness may be seen in how largely they loom over the movements that they ultimately launched. But greater men are they whose movements loom large over them. Even to the point of obscuring them from view altogether.  Gerard was just such a man.
  •  It would be difficult to find a single page of modern history written about him. But it would be even more difficult to find a single page of modern history not affected by him.
  • Groote was born with a great deal of money and privilege. He was also very bright. But his was a dissipated life. He chased after pleasure. But he desired something more – something more substantive.
  • So he began reading in the Augustinian tradition. But he didn’t take the church or the claims of the gospel seriously. (The church in his day was fraught with corruption, impiety, and schism.) In fact, the church was more worldly than the world.
  • And yet, there was something about the gospel and its claims (especially the doctrines of sovereign grace that he discovered in Augustine) that would not let him go.
  • And so, in 1374, Groote was converted to the faith. Almost immediately afterwards, he began to use his ability to articulate truth to tell everyone he knew of the mercies that were available in the gospel of grace. It was not a message often heard in those days. He was received well by many, however. One person who received him was John Wycliffe. Together, he and Wycliffe discussed their ideas of…
  1.  Translating the Bible into the vernacular of the people
  2. Sending out lay-preachers into the community
  3. Teaching ordinary people to read so that they could better understand the doctrines of grace.
  •  Groote returned home and began his labors among common people. His desire to was to spread a vision for radical discipleship. He did. And his followers/disciples who gathered around him called themselves “the Brethren of the Common Life.”
  • They described Groote’s vision as the Devotio Moderna (the modern way of serving God). . It was a vision of discipleship that had a number of distinctive elements. It was also unheard of in the 14th century.
The Devotio Moderna was to be a comprehensive lifestyle rooted in a biblical worldview. Let’s take a look at the distinctives of this “radical discipleship.”

1.)   The Devotio Moderna , first of all, emphasized holiness for every Christian – not just for a few. Groote wanted common piety for common folk – this was the heart of his message.

  • He said the difference between the City of God and the City of Man is demonstrable. Christ’s followers should be imitators of Christ (by grace, through faith – not of themselves). This was the great aim of discipleship according to Groote. He wanted to instill in a while new generation, an appetite for those things that mattered most.
  • Groote was a very controversial person because of all this. His vision was the gospel of Jesus Christ, but this vision pitted him against very powerful forces in the culture. But the worse his (and the Brethren’s) reputation became, the greater their following became.
2.)   Secondly, the Devotio Moderna emphasized the importance of self-examination, as a way of cultivating humility.

  • Groote was famous for saying, “I am tired of just being right.” Instead, he wanted to communicate truth to the world and minister to the needs of others.
  • It’s a spirit of humility that affords us the best opportunities to grow, mature, and achieve in the life of the mind. It’s knowing how much we do not know that allows us to fully embark on a lifetime of learning – to recover to any degree, the beauty and goodness and truth of Christendom.
  • Groote took seriously the high call of Scripture to walk humbly before God and man.
3.)               Groote’s Devotio Moderna emphasized the importance of covenantal communities, as the real-life context for discipleship.

  • The idea was for people to live out particular graces with one another. He wanted his disciples to go to the least likely places and gather the least likely students – and invest in those students. He wanted them to plant themselves in those communities, and then allow the gospel to flower whatever the Spirit would bring. This was to be “home.” He believed that it was at “home” that the beauty of Christian civilization was best comprehended.
  • For Groote, the best Christian education would bring about such virtues as hospitality, care for the poor, for the sick, strength in families, reaching out to neighbors. It would root people at home.
4.)               Groote’s Devotio Moderna emphasized the importance of a Confessional Standard (standards rooted in the biblical antithesis).

  • It was for this reason that Groote believed that one of the first tasks of Christian education was to translate the great classics of Christendom into the vernacular language – to give students the tools of translation – to build up libraries, and to initiate literacy among the least and the last – not just the first and the foremost.  (Thomas Chalmers, of the 19th century, relied on Groote for his own education reforms)
  • Groote proclaimed that there is no neutrality in education. Facts are not neutral. History is not neutral. Math is not neutral. The world is sundered by a great antithesis – where the City of God and the City of Man never intermingle. We must teach truth – truth in terms of God’s Word – because the Bible is God’s own revelation of wisdom, knowledge, understanding and truth. It is not merely a marvelous collection of quaint sayings and inspiring stories. It’s God’s message to man – his instruction. It is God’s guideline, his plumb line, his bottom line.
5.)               Therefore, Groote’s Devotio Moderna placed a high premium on teaching every man, woman, and child, the Bible.

  • The Bible was not merely tacked on as one additional class to all the other classes. The Bible was not, for Groote, an appendage to all the other scholastic disciplines.
  • Curriculum was not simply to be dipped in Bible passages in order to make it appear to be Christian. Education’s purpose was to facilitate the catechizing – the discipling process. The goal was not simply to make the students bright and successful students in society, but to make them sober, discerning, wise, and fruitful members of the Kingdom.

Together, these distinctives: Holiness, Humility, Covenantal Community, Antithesis, and Catechizing – comprised what Groote called “Classical Christianity” or what we might call, “Biblical Orthodoxy.”

  • Groote believed that the key to reforming the church in his day was to begin at the grassroots level, and reform education – by finding places of fruitful ministry at home – and then investing in the people found there.
  • Groote’s vision was a multi-generational plan – a strategy that would stretch across the covenantal generations. He looked at his world and said that there was nothing he could do about the Babylonian Captivity of the church; nothing he could do about the universities; nothing he could do about the civil wars…FOR NOW.  But, if we lay foundations, enduring foundations – if our vision extends just beyond our own lifetimes – if our vision extends just to our children’s lifetimes – if we trust the gospel for the future – then real and substantive change is not only possible – it is promised!
  • Groote had this great faith that the gospel is not only true for the here and now, but that the gospel could transform entire cultures and change civilizations. That foundations laid in righteousness would ultimately endure when all of the foolishness of the world collapses under the weight of its own absurdity.
  • Groote never lived to see the day of how powerful and successful his vision was. He was forgotten because the movement he launched loomed so much larger than he did.
  • And yet, because of his faithful labors; because of his vision of discipleship; because of the band of disciples that he gathered around him and invested in – within a single decade, the world was changed forever.
  • I don’t just want to be right. I want something that endures for all the generations.
  • Wouldn’t it be wonderful to look across all the covenantal generations and to know that one day, because of the penance we’ve invested, in these short hours, that in the future a Luther or a Calvin, or a Whitefield, or a Wesley, or a Wilberforce – or all of them combined – would come forth from faithful covenantal parents, and change the world.
  • The great assurance of the gospel is that change is not just possible, it’s promised when God’s covenant people exercise covenant faithfulness.
  • Is there a Groote in you? Are you willing to die in obscurity to lay foundations that will endure across the generations? Like Groote, we must yearn for that which will change, and change for all time.
  • Groote taught that Satan would have us offer an alternative, any alternative to the truth, the one truth, the central truth of the gospel. He would have us affirm anything, anything at all, as long as it is not that Jesus is Lord – that he is the Lord over the totality of life, and that he has spoken authoritatively, definitively, and finally. Anything is acceptable to him, everything is acceptable to him – except the notion that the Lord has established his throne in the heavens and that his sovereignty rules over all. Anything is acceptable to Satan except the sufficiency of Scripture. Thus, even Satan underscores the inescapability of antithesis in his resistance to them.
  • In our quest for the excellent; in our quest for the substantive; in our quest for the effective, let’s never lose sight of the fact that all of that is perfectly acceptable to the enemy. The one thing that sets us apart is our desire to move from mere knowledge to understanding, and from understanding to wisdom.

Groote said,

“Lay foundations that will endure in the hearts of your children. For there are only two things that are eternal in all of the created order: the children under your care, and the Word of God.”

Grant’s Prayer at the end of the message…

     O Father; Almighty Father, I confess to you that I am often diverted by pleasant alternatives. I am often tantalized by that which will bring success, effectiveness, suasion in the here and now. I pray that you would give me eyes to look beyond the horizon of just this moment. Enable me to invest for all eternity. Enable us to have a distinctive vision of discipleship – like that of Gerard Groote before us. Enable us to quest for holiness, humility, covenantal community, antithesis, catechizing – classical Christianity – in the hearts of our children – first and foremost.

     Lord God, I pray that we will produce not just successful businessmen, or men and women effective in their vocations. We yearn for REFORMATION. Change the world, O God! And use us in the process.

 We pray this in Jesus name. Amen and amen
.

*****************

Here’s a short little introduction I just found on Groote that’s worth reading.

0 Comments

The Fuel of Great Leaders

9/18/2015

0 Comments

 
Picture
Below are some thoughts I shared a few years ago as I was reading and interacting with a great book by Daniel Harkavy. I found it to be a very meaningful book for me as I reflected on pastoral ministry. I thought I’d pass this post along once more.

Becoming A Coaching Leader by Daniel Harkavy
Chapter Two

Title: The Fuel of Great Leaders

For Harkavy, the fuel of great leaders is the combination of convictions and courage.

Harkavy points out that the desire to help other people is a fundamental conviction that energizes coaching leaders. He asks, “…do you believe that you have something of significant value to offer your key team members?” He assumes that someone reading his book will answer yes. Thus, he says, “This primary conviction, the commitment to help others improve, usually gets strengthened by a few other important convictions.”

He then briefly hits on what these important convictions are. A coaching leader will…

  1. Tell the truth
  2. Serve others
  3. Be aware of time
  4. Appreciate talent (side note – Harkavy says that “One of the greatest benefits of being a coaching leader is that if forces [him] to improve [his] own disciplines and actions)
Here are a few questions that some coaching leaders he knows ask their employees…

  1. If you were to die today, what would be said about you?
  2. What accounts in your life are most important to you?
  3. What vision do you have for each one of those accounts?
  4. Who do you want to become?
  5. What do you want to experience?
  6. What are the three to five things you need to do in each of those areas so that you can accumulate net worth in all areas of your life?

The point is this: a coaching leader cares for more than just the business-side of the clock. A coaching leader cares about the people in his or her life –whether at work, home, etc. Therefore, “They want to help their team members succeed in all of life, including after 5:00p.m.”

I preached a sermon last year that highlighted some of my spiritual mentors and how important they were in my life. Harkavy helpfully makes a similar point to his readers by asking…

  1. Who has made the most significant impact in your life? Why?
  2. What did this person teach you or share with you?

He follows up by saying that, “Chances are, you are thinking of an individual who really cared for you, someone willing to take a risk and invest in you.”

He then makes this important point as a way of summing up the chapter…

“Do you want to know something? Your offices are filled with people who would love for you to be just that person.”

I was speaking with Len Sykes (who works with Ken Boa) a couple of years ago and he mentioned to me almost the very same thing and it has really stuck with me. He said that men don’t have other men who will really listen to them, without an agenda. He also said that men just don’t have another man who will come along and speak honestly into their lives. That’s really true. I’ve experienced that.

I think what is easy to miss in our culture is the veneer that people hide behind so that others won’t know how badly they’re hurting. Building relationships and trust with others is such an essential step in the process of investing your life into the life of another. It requires keen listening (a point that Harkavy will make in a later chapter). It also involves asking good questions. I’ll deal later with those two points in the order that Harkavy unpacks them.

Another good chapter. I enjoyed it because I resonated with his description of what undergirds and motivates a coaching leader. While I fall short of the qualities he outlines, it’s still a goal that I strive for.

Blessings,
Dale


0 Comments

Becoming A Coaching Leader

9/18/2015

0 Comments

 
Picture
This is an older post (I think around 2009). However, I’ve just started rereading this very good book and thought I would share some of the highlights from it again.

Blessings,
Dale


Chapter Highlights for… Becoming A Coaching Leader by Daniel Harkavy

Introduction and Chapter One


A few years ago I became interested in the discipline or ministry of “Coaching,” probably because I felt it was something I had been doing (or trying to do) throughout my ministry. I figured that educating and equipping myself in  another aspect (or from another angle) of something I was already doing could only add value to my life and ministry… and by extension… to the lives of those entrusted to my care.

The very first line in the Introduction to Becoming A Coaching Leader by Daniel Harkavy confirmed that I had chosen wisely regarding my most recent read on the subject. (Or… that God was very gracious in directing my hand in the choosing of it. Don’t want to steal his glory.)

Harkavy’s first words are these…

“You want to make a greater difference in the lives of those you lead and experience more success and significance as you do so.”

To that I can only give a hearty, “Amen.”

Chapter One begins by asking, “What is your vocational purpose?”.

That’s a question that I think about often. Yet I can’t sever it from my deepest purpose in life, which is to please, honor, and glorify God and to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. My other sub-purposes in
life flow out of that over-arching purpose.

While the book seems primarily addressed to leaders in the business field, many of the principles that Harkavy deals with apply to my life as a minister of discipleship. Throughout the book I sought to (and sometimes really labored to) make connections between what Harkavy was describing about an office setting and what I’m attempting to do in a church setting with folks who don’t work for me.

I really resonated with a couple of quotes on pages 4 and 5…

“Your purpose as a coaching leader is to add the most value to the people you lead and to help them improve.”

“Leaders are called to develop people. Their passion for people drives everything – and few things in life feel sweeter than investing in the lives of others and then watching them grow and succeed as a result of your
efforts
.” Greg Harkavy

Amen to both statements.

I first heard the phrase, “add value to,” in the context of pouring your life into another person (or persons) from John Maxwell. It has always stuck with me because, at the end of the day, I want to add value to the lives of others for the sake of Christ and his Kingdom. I want others to experience the abundant and eternal life of those who know Christ and who are seeking to please him, honor him, glorify him, love him more, know him better, and become more like him in every sphere of their lives. This book offered some great ways to help me grow in my ability to add that value in the lives of others (as well as my own life).

One of the penetrating questions Harkavy asks on page 11 is one that I’m wrestling to answer: “What is your plan to develop your team?”

For me, the paraphrase of that question is this: What is my plan to disciple, shepherd, educate, equip, encourage, enrich, nurture, lead, coach, mentor, etc., the folks of my church family (and perhaps beyond)? Do I have a plan? How intentional am I being? How strategic am I? Are minds being renewed, hearts changed, and lives transformed as I minister to those entrusted to my care? That’s my great calling and passion. Is it happening? How can I do better? Tough questions… but ones that need answers.

In that respect, Harkavy and I are on the same page. He writes,

“…coaching is not merely ‘another thing’ for me; it’s the chosen focus of my life. I love adding value to leaders and showing them how they can do the same for the members of their own teams.” (p. 15)

Good stuff!

I’ll try to draw more from this book by taking a look at Chapter Two on another day.

Blessings,
Dale


UPDATE  – Michael Hyatt just reposted (8-25-09) his article on developing a Life Plan, which is an idea based on the book, Becoming A Coaching Leader. A very fine article and well worth your time.

0 Comments

Richard Baxter: A Model of Godly Leadership

9/18/2015

0 Comments

 
Picture
Question: Who has been a leadership role model for you (outside of Biblical characters) and what have you learned from him/her?

Answer: The leadership role-model who has done the most to shape my ministry is Richard Baxter. Richard Baxter was a pastor in the 1600’s who served a local church in Kidderminster, England. He was much admired as a pastor by the Wesleys.

“John Wesley’s father Samuel, once a nonconformist wrote: ‘I wish I had [The Reformed Pastor] again: Directions to the clergy for the management of their people which I lost when my house was last burnt… [Baxter] had a strange pathos and fire.’”

“John [Wesley] himself told the Methodist Conference: ‘Every travelling preacher must instruct them from house to house… Can we find a better method of doing this than Mr. Baxter’s? If not, let us adopt it without delay. His whole tract entitled The Reformed Pastor, is well worth a capable perusal.’ On another occasion he challenged his preachers: ‘Who visits the people on Mr. Baxter’s method?’”

“Charles Wesley and William Grimshaw of Haworth conversing together agreed that preachers should ‘visit from house to house, after Mr. Baxter’s manner.’”[1]

Baxter was a living example of all that he wrote in his book, The Reformed Pastor. By “reformed,” Baxter meant “revived.” His book was originally written to clergy in his area and appealed to them to rediscover their calling as shepherd of souls – to really care for their flocks as Christ loved the church. The book is moving and was used of God to pour conviction on my soul as a pastor. However, mere words can often fall flat. There must be a life behind those words that matches them. His was such a life.

Baxter was known throughout England as a godly man. He sought to live a life that was above reproach and one that could never be attacked as hypocritical. Like Wesley, he lived a very modest life because it was more important for him to give his money to the poor as well as to purchase  books and Bibles for them.

He truly loved his flock at Kidderminster. He developed the practice of visiting every family in his church at least once a year at their home (over 2,000 people). There he would pray with them, make sure they knew the life-transforming truths of the faith, and see about any areas of their lives in which they needed help. He did not then leave them, go home, and forget about them. They were continually on his heart.

His preaching and teaching concentrated on the essentials of Christian doctrine and holy living. He did not have time for those who focused only on divisive and nonessential matters. His view was that life was too short for such things.

These are some aspects of his life and teaching that have impacted mine. Though my ministry falls short of his, humanly speaking, it is my goal. I have tried to develop a ministry that goes to the people and meets them where they are. My purpose is to create a warm and friendly environment where they can share the hopes, joys, fears and struggles of their souls with me. In my teaching I attempt to concentrate on those things that matter most, those things of eternal significance, such as knowing God and his Word, living holy lives, bearing witness to Christ in the world and displaying mercy and justice. Baxter has helped me expand my view of ministry.

How does this relate to leadership? Well, Baxter modeled what he taught. God has been unfolding before me the idea that our lives must be lived with profound consistency. If I say something from the pulpit, in a Bible study or a committee meeting or, in a one-on-one counseling experience, and live in a way that is radically inconsistent with what I’ve said, then I have demonstrated poor leadership indeed. Why? Because my words will soon begin to fall on deaf ears and rightly so. Leadership must be daily lived and modeled before those one is leading, and that is one of the most important things that I learned from Richard Baxter.

Grace and Truth,
Dale


[1] From J.I. Packer’s Introduction to The Reformed Pastor by Richard Baxter. Page 15.

0 Comments

A Reminder and Warning for Shepherds

9/18/2015

0 Comments

 
Picture
I love Acts 20! As a shepherd entrusted with the care of a local assembly of God’s flock, I get a lot of mileage out of these farewell words of the Apostle Paul to the church leaders in Ephesus.  Paul spent three years shepherding and building the church in Ephesus – longer than he spent with any other church. He poured out his life as he invested in theirs.

As he prepared to depart from them, Paul both reminded them of something important and warned them about something important.

First of all, he reminded them that he had never hesitated to preach anything that would be helpful to them. I get the sense here that Paul did not preach to their felt needs, but instead, ministered to their actual needs before a holy God.

Furthermore, he didn’t just preach from the pulpit to the masses. Like the pastoral giant, Richard Baxter, who would use this text as one of the foundations of his ministry some 1,600 years later, Paul went house to house – teaching both Jews and Greeks that they must turn to God in repentance as well as place their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ if they would be saved.

This effort, for Paul, was the cornerstone of his ministry there. He said in verse 24,

However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me–the task of testifying to the gospel of God’s grace.

His faithfulness to this blessed task was what enabled him to say in verse 26 that he was “innocent  of the blood of all men.” For he did not hesitate “to proclaim to [the church at Ephesus] the whole will of God.” In other words, there were no essential doctrines of the Christian faith omitted because of how uncomfortable they might make the intended audience. The whole counsel or will of God was preached. That meant that Paul preached on the character, attributes, and decrees of God, heaven, hell, salvation, sin, justification by faith alone in Christ alone, holiness, the cost of discipleship, etc., etc., etc.

If it was a.) helpful to the people (verse 20), and b.) part of the whole will of God (verse 27), then the Apostle preached it.

I’ve heard it put this way before: If you knew you only had five years to minister to someone, what would you want to make sure they heard, understood, and began to put into practice before they left your influence? Paul only had three years. And we don’t have to guess what he spent every minute preaching and teaching. We need only read the Book of Acts and his epistles to know the heart of Paul’s focus.

That leaves me with this question: What am I preaching and teaching the people entrusted to my care during the time that I’ve been given? That includes not only my church but also my family…and anyone else whom I may influence. In that sense, we are all shepherds who need to ask ourselves that penetrating question. We are all called to pass on the whole counsel of God to the next generation of followers and would-be followers of Christ. It’s what Christ meant when he said that included in making disciples is the order to teach them to obey everything that he commanded. He also said in John 8:32, that if we would hold to his teaching, then we are really his disciples.

For us, today, that “whole counsel” of God would include things such as repentance of sin, trust in the person and work of Christ alone for salvation, the great doctrines of the faith, holiness of life, etc.

Some of this will soothe the wearied soul. Some of it will be a balm to the hurting. Even for some of the rebellious it will be inexpressibly good news. For others it will prick the conscience and even stir up anger. It will be repellant for yet others. But we can be assured that it will all be for the good of those whom God has entrusted to our care…to our sphere of influence And that, along with the joy of obeying God in such things, should be all the affirmation we need.

Grace and Truth,
Dale


0 Comments
<<Previous

    Categories

    All
    100 Godly Men
    Apologetics
    Books
    Boyhood
    Burning Heart
    Catechesis
    Children
    Christ & Culture
    Christianity
    Christian Living
    Church
    C.S. Lewis
    Culture
    Devotional & Encouragement
    Discipleship
    Doctrine
    Evangelicalism
    Family
    Fatherhood
    Godly Manhood
    Gospel
    Holiness
    Husband
    Kingdom Discipleship
    Library
    Manhood
    Men
    Men's Ministry
    Mentoring
    Mercy
    Parenting
    Poverty
    Prayers
    Puritans
    Reading
    Right Path Devotions
    Sanctification
    Satan
    Social Justice
    Sons
    Southside United Methodist Church
    St. Patrick
    Study
    Theology
    Witness
    Worldview


    Archives

    September 2016
    August 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    September 2015
    August 2015


    RSS Feed

Click an image below to visit the bookstore

Picture
Picture
Picture
  • Home
  • About
  • Walking Points
  • A Far Green Country
  • Bible Studies
    • Old Testament Essentials
    • Ephesians: Growing Up in Christ
    • Sermons & Etc
    • Philippians
    • Costly Discipleship
    • Lord of All
    • Living Wisely in Turbulent Times
    • 1 Samuel
    • Gospel of John
    • A Different Gospel
    • Southside Life Group Studies
    • A Light Unto Our Path
    • The God We Worship
  • Podcast
  • Prayer Journal
    • Heidelberg Catechism
  • My Books
  • My YouTube
  • Other Resources
    • Spiritual Power
    • Spiritual Life Checkup
    • Spiritual Direction
    • Apologetics
    • Master Plan of Evangelism
    • Wesleyan Methodist Links
    • Favorites >
      • Pastoral Ministry
      • C.S. Lewis
      • Lewis and Schaeffer
      • Richard Baxter
      • The Puritans