A Poem For Pastors

Shepherds

Mere men, though you all may be,

God’s church you must oversee.

Limited in mind and heart,

Still God has set you apart

To love and care for His sheep,

And their faith in Him to keep.

Heavy task with stakes so high;

God’s strong Spirit must be nigh.

To Him in faith you must call;

He’s sufficient for it all.

He’s raised you up to protect,

To feed, counsel, and correct.

Be like warriors who fight

For justice with great delight.

Even be willing to die,

If every good He’ll supply,

By the life or death you give,

That His sheep may truly live.

Though He leans not on what you do,

He will build His Church through you.

For this, He’s promised His grace.

Your hope, in Him, you must place.

This is His body and bride,

So be careful to provide

Them with good food from His Book.

It alone leads to the brook

Where waters of Life do flow.

You must never let it go.

Remember that though you lead,

You must follow and must heed

Your wise Shepherd’s holy voice.

As shepherds and sheep rejoice

To be the servants who lead;

Those who care, love, guide, and feed.

Be amazed and stand in awe,

That blood-bought people of God,

Are under your daily care.

What a privilege that you share

A part in their great story,

That ends with them in glory!

 

A Poem of Meditation on Nehemiah 9

Sometimes when we read the Bible we can walk away forgetting what we read and not really being (or at least not feeling) affected by any of it. This is usually because we have failed to meditate on what we read, especially when we read more than just a few verses. So, in order to help myself to meditate in my daily Bible reading, I will often make use of different methods of meditation. One of the most helpful tools of meditation is writing. But we don’t have to write books or even paragraphs for it to be helpful. Sometimes writing down a reworded paraphrase of a section, chapter, paragraph, or verse can be a effective means of meditation and prayer. And if you’re really feeling saucy, you can try to make your paraphrases rhyme with meter. This forces us to think about the words we use and it helps us to remember it and meditate on it longer. Here, now, is my attempt at this from Nehemiah 9 yesterday:

May God’s Word lead us to long confession,

Not worshiping God is our transgression. (Nehemiah 9:1-4)

Stand up high the Lord’s holy name to bless,

He is higher than blessing can profess. (Nehemiah 9:5-8)

The Lord, for His people, He sees their tears,

And when they cry to Him He always hears. (Nehemiah 9:9)

The Lord, for His glory, in love He acts

For His own so that no good do they lack. (Nehemiah 9:10-15)

But even His people sin with stiff necks,

Forgetting He saved us from damning wrecks. (Nehemiah 9:16-17a)

Yet in God’s great grace & for our delight

He forgives & sustains us day & night. (Nehemiah 9:17b-25)

Again & again against Him we sin,

Yet as our kind Father He disciplines. (Nehemiah 9:26-31)

Because our faithful God is full of grace

Let us confess & pray & seek His face. (Nehemiah 9:32-38)

Stand up high the Lord’s holy name to bless,

He is higher than blessing can profess.

(This was originally posted at http://www.exaltequipengage.com/2013/09/19/poem-nehemiah-9/).

 

The Gospel (in about 5 minutes)

The Gospel (in about 5 minutes)

What is the gospel?  What is this Good News?  What is the message of Jesus Christ?!?

It is this:

Worthy God

That there is a God.  That He is Eternal, Self-existent, and Self-sufficient; needing nothing and no one.  He is on the glorious side of wonderful and the infinite side of worthy!

And being as such, He chose to glorify Himself, that is, to display His infinite worth by becoming the Creator and King of our entire universe, showing Himself to be on the Almighty side of strong and the Omniscient side of wise.

And God, being God, does nothing, especially not creating the universe, on accident or arbitrarily, but did so (as He does everything) on purpose.

And His purpose for us is that we would glorify and enjoy Him forever!

Sinful Man

But you and I both know that we do not always do this.  In fact,

 

Boasting Only in Christ

Should we celebrate our success?  If so, how should we celebrate it?

My answer, in short, is: Yes, we should celebrate our success,… with true humility and right focus.  And with great JOY!

But what does this mean, and what does it look like?

First, to celebrate success with true humility and right focus means that you recognize that all success is really from the God of all grace as He works in, through, and for you (James 1:17; 1 Corinthians 2:1-5; 4:7; 3:7; 15:10; 2 Corinthians 4:7; 1 Peter 4:10-12).  What does this look like in conversation?

• When talking about your success, give explicit praise to God for all of it.  May it not be a mere “Christian” add-on at the end of your self-boasting, but your sincere conviction that you owe all of your success to God.
• When talking about your success, give explicit praise to God for how He worked through others in your life to bring you success.
• When talking about your success, give explicit praise to God for how He worked in and through you.  When someone compliments us, we might feel like we need to (either out of embarrassment or the fear of appearing braggadocios) to downplay all the work we put in.  But there is no need to minimize your hard work, because it is not merely the effectiveness of your hard work that God is sovereign over and gracious in, but He is also sovereign and gracious in your desire, commitment, and ability to work hard.
• When talking about your success, give explicit praise to God for how He worked without, and perhaps even in spite of, you and others.  Why does one man get the job and another not?  Often times it is because the one is qualified and the other is not.  But many other times, we cannot see the reason why.  It is truly due to the all-wise and mysterious providence of God.  We must openly and gladly confess that much of our success was graciously given to us for God’s own wise and loving purposes, often for such purposes that He alone knows.
• When talking about your success, give explicit praise to God for your effectiveness and/or faithfulness.  Make sure your are talking about real success.  Know that success is not always measured in numbers and tangibly quantifiable ways.  Most fundamentally and most supremely in everything, success is being faithful, not effective.  However, our faithfulness must include an earnest desire, passionate commitment, and tireless efforts seeking effectiveness, otherwise it is false faithfulness.

Lastly, if we have true humility and the right focus in our success, then we should celebrate it with great joy!  Find pleasure in giving praise to God!  Be glad and rejoice in all that HE has done and is doing!  This is worship; this is why we exist!  Celebrating our success can either dishonor God and put others off, or it can greatly honor Him and encourage others to focus on and rejoice in Him.  Remember, there is no possible way of celebrating our success to the glory of Christ if we are insincere; faking humility, subtly trying to put the focus on ourselves.

Boasting in self is sinful and foolish.

• (Romans 1:30; 1 Corinthians 1:29; Ephesians ; Psalm 5:5; 75:4; Isaiah 9:23).

Boasting in Christ is good and commanded!

• (Philippians 3:3; Romans 15:17; Galatians 6:14; Psalm 34:2; 44:8; Isaiah 9:24; 1 Corinthians 1:30-31; 2 Corinthians 10:17).

(Originally posted at exaltequipengage.com)

 

Discerning God’s Will

This is a post of posts.  Here are some links to some previous posts on the subject of discerning the Lord’s will:

1. What Life is All About
2. The Two Wills of God
3. What Are We Looking For?
4. What Are We Doing Now?
5. Who’s the Boss?
6. Why Do We Have Not?
7. Who Do We Want to Follow?
8. How Do We Come to Know? – Part I
9. How Do We Come to Know? – Part II
10. How Do We Come to Know? – Part III

Please read all of these posts in order.  They are all short.  May these thoughts be a blessing as you seek to live your life for the glory of Jesus.