Today will be short yet piercing. Burroughs point is simple, "the soul that has learned this lesson of contentment looks up to God in all things." Simply put the soul that is contented does not set his praises towards man or any such instrument for securing his hope. The soul that is content looks only to God and rests in His sovereignty and goodness.

This section is marking the difference between being comforted by the things of God and by God Himself. I fear that in my own life I look to the books on my shelf faster than to I look to Jesus. It is one thing to admire these great men and women of God. It is quite another for them to become sacred substitutes. One of the things that I love about such men as John Piper, Jonathan Edwards, John Owen, Charles Spurgeon, Robert Murray McCheyne, among a host of others, is that they point me to Jesus and cause me to hunger for Christ and His Word. Yet, I am guilty of stopping there. I should again resolve to be as Andrew Bonar who, 1) would not speak to any man before speaking to Jesus 2) would not do anything with his hands until he had been on his knees 3) not to read the papers (internet news/blogs/etc. for us) until he had read his Bible.

I understand that Burroughs is primarily talking about what the believer does in affliction. I would like to think that after coming through an affliction I would not be so thoughtless as to bow my knees and thank the folks at Desiring God for publishing The Suffering and the Sovereignty of God. In fact I think it is right to bow our knee and thank God for such men and women. But the issue is this, am I thanking God and only God (whatever means he uses) or is their a spot of unhealthy adoration in my heart for His instruments? Knowing that my heart is prone to idolatry I would not doubt that I exalt even such men to a place of unhealthy adoration. May the Lord break us of our pride and our idolatry!

The following is the newsletter article I put together for December:

Do hard things! That is the motto of The Rebelution (yes, that is spelled correctly). The Rebelution is the cry of a generation of young people who are “rebelling against the low expectation of an ungodly culture”. Lord willing we will be attending a Rebelution conference this summer in Iowa. I would strongly encourage you to check out their website at http://www.therebelution.com.

As I was pondering this call to a generation—to do hard things—I had to question myself. Do I do hard things? Are we as a church modeling for our young people—do hard things?!?! I see the example of some of the men in our church laboring to put up porches, trim bushes, load food for the community, and serve and serve and serve. You teach our generation something, so thank you. But I also am forced to ask another question. Do we do hard things in our faith? Do we read difficult books that drive us deeper to the throne of grace? Do we struggle over the hard texts in Scripture? Do we want to know more of God and labor and labor and labor until we do? Are we missionaries; getting our hands dirty, sharing the gospel to hard people in hard places? Do we model for our young people a passion to know God more fully or do we give of a vibe of contentment and satisfaction with how much of God we have?

Very shortly most of us will be going through Don’t Waste Your Life in our Sunday school classes. There are some difficult things in that book. You might come across words you do not understand. You might have to read over a sentence a few times. God might drive you to your knees in prayer. He might blow your mind with how vast He is. I urge you to go deep. Do not be satisfied. Yes God is simple. Yes the Gospel is so simple a child can grasp it (so long as he/she has been regenerated). But, dear church, we will spend all of eternity digging the “depths of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!” (Romans 11:33)

Dear brothers our young men are NOT doing hard things. The culture is not expecting it of them. They are not being raised up as men of God. Many of them are not currently bearing marks of manhood (see last article). The lack of involvement of our young men in small groups, positions of leadership training, Christmas plays, prayer groups, etc. is a reflection of this. Unless we raise the bar of expectation and help these boys become men, DO NOT expect this to change. They will continue to act like children. At the age of 17, 27, and maybe even 37. Brothers, we must model for them—do hard things! In our physical labor and in our spiritual labor. Brothers, live lives that reflect an unquenchable passion for Jesus Christ. Live lives that say—we do hard things! We care about theology! We care about holiness! We care about Jesus!

Dear sisters our young women are NOT doing hard things. The culture is not expecting it of them. Actually, the culture is expecting women to be manlier than our men. I plead with you, in tears, do not let our young women believe the lies of the world! Model for them what it means to do hard things. Tell them there is no shame in raising a family. Model for them what it means to be submissive to a husband. Display in your life that you treasure Jesus more than materials, makeup, and men. But display for them also that you treasure your husband. These girls need women to show them how to be women. I am grateful for the leadership of my wife and Beth in teaching some of these girls how to cook, clean, etc. Dear sisters I plead with you—teach these young women what it means to be like Abraham’s wife—Sarah.

Brothers and Sisters I am pleading with you that we might be a Titus 2 church. Training young women and urging young men! Not only our future but also our present obedience to God depends on it! He says teach, model, lead our young people—do it!

Love in Christ,
Mike

Today we will introduce a new feature to our blog. Friday, I posted what my mornings typically look like. Now I will give you the fruit of my labor. I will be posting links and a short summary to articles that I found interesting. Note: I may not agree with every article I link to. These will be linked to in the hopes to spawn thoughtful interaction. So, without further ado here are today's blogworld posts:

Remember a few months back when Christendom was in an uproar of the Gospel of Judas? Just as in the past this too has been shown to be a fraud. Dr. Mohler points us to a new book by April D. Deconick which accurately points us to National Geographic's misrepresentation of the text in the Gospel of Judas. Turns out Judas still is not a hero and is actually portrayed as a demon. The full blog post can be found here: Revising the Revisionists

Also in the news today is yet another controversial booking by Saddleback Church (Rick Warren's church). The Christian Post covers the 'gutsy appearance' of Presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton. This, frankly, sickens me for a number of reasons. 1) It is awesome that the church is involved in trying to alleviate suffering and such tragedies as AIDS. Might we continue. However, to link up with those who are strongly pro-death (er, I mean pro-choice) is ludicrous. I am fairly certain that 2 Corinthians 6:14-18 addresses such unholy unions. 2) The continual sell-out of the church into the political arena. There are numerous other reasons for my disdain, but these two will suffice for now.

I am encouraged that as we are beginning a study on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood that material is becoming readily available. Last week the Shepherd's Scrapbook posted an excellent interview with C.J. Mahaney on biblical masculinity. Also of note, Between Two Worlds: Man Up where Justin Taylor points us to an article by Ray Van Neste on young guys growing up to be men. Voddie Baucham's address to Charleston Southern University about biblical manhood is also now available. I encourage all of our parents and young men to check these out. It may even be beneficial to our young ladies who want to know what a godly man looks like.

The Blazing Center gives us 8 Tips to Get More Out of Bible Study. It's actually more of a "how to do an effective quiet time", but it is very helpful. I especially appreciate pointing us to journaling and responding to what we have read. Insights like this keep us from legalistically doing quiet times and redeeming them in the hopes of seeing Jesus.

Founders has some helpful links for the Building Bridges Conference that was held at Southeastern. I am so excited to hear that a group of Southern Baptist are together discussing theology. I am especially encouraged that what was debated was not Hyper-Calvinism vs. Arminianism. It has been my experience that many people who come from an Arminian persuasion disagree with hyper-Calvinist and very seldom engage the belief of Calvinist. This conference will help. It will especially help to dispel some of the main myths concerning Calvinism. 1) It is not counter-evangelism. In fact some of the statistics at the conference show that Calvinist and Arminians are about equal on evangelism--neither are doing it like we are called to. 2) It is not, nor does it inevitably lead to, the heretical Hyper-Calvinism. I am excited to see the fruit from this Conference. Tom Ascol provides summary thoughts as well as links to other posts about the event.

That's it for today...join us tomorrow for more from Blogworld

Many people wonder what I do with my work day. Some people, I think, imagine that a full-time minister sits in his office and stares out into space all day. Perhaps, some give me more "spiritual points" than I am due--thinking I pray for about 4 hours and read my Bible for the next 4-5. Actually my 9-5 includes less prayer time than it should and less Bible reading than it should. However, much of my day is saturated in constant conversation with the Lord and in reading/studying. One of my most productive times is actually in the morning. Usually before I make blog posts myself I engage my mind with a little reading. I point my browser to www.google.com/reader and check out all of the various blogs I read daily.

I thought that it might be beneficial for you to know which blogs I frequent. One that I visit numerous times a day is Between Two Worlds. It is Justin Taylor's Blog. Some of my readers are probably not familiar with Justin. You should go to his blog and check out some of his stuff. One of his accomplishments, that is a huge benefit to the church, is his update of John Owen's Overcoming Sin and Temptation. A free copy is available in pdf. format here. It is especially beneficial to me because another blog I frequent, www.challies.com is currently doing a Reading the Classics Together. The book we are going through now is Owen's book. We are only on the third chapter; so you could get caught up quickly and join us.

Those, and Piper's Desiring God, are my most frequent visits. I also check out Southern Seminary President Dr. Albert Mohler's blog. Others that I frequent include: Thabiti Anyabwile's Pure Church blog, The Resurgence, The blog that is maintained by Founders, The Shepherd's Scrapbook, and the Pyromaniacs.
I also have a few friends (surprising I know) that are in the blog world. My friend Garrett often blogs at Thoughts on the Way, Josh has his own blog at Everything to Enjoy. A couple of other friends have blogs for their ministries: David at FBC Monroe City and Jonathan at Elm Grove.

So, I spend a little bit of time in the morning reading some of the latest articles that these guys either link to or write themselves. After that I spend time either preparing for sermons, reading one of the books I am currently reading, working on a book I am attempting to write, or making blog posts like this one. Oh, and just so you do not get the wrong idea, I also spend some time checking up on my fantasy football teams and the playoff-bound Cleveland Browns!!

My reason for sharing all of this is to get you to follow some of these links and check them out. They are great resources and every Christian would benefit from signing up for google reader and checking out the blog updates daily. To God be the glory!

Last time we saw that contentment is a free work of the spirit. This time we will see that it is taking pleasure in God's disposal. (p9-10). At this point Burroughs is going to take us further into this matter of Christian contentment. It is not only seeing that we should be content, but it is actually seeing good in, and taking pleasure in, the affliction. Burroughs notes that it is not merely looking back on the affliction and saying with David, "it was good that I was afflicted". Rather, it is being in the midst of the trial and saying, "it is good that I am afflicted". "Not just good when you see the good fruit it has wrought, but to say when you are afflicted, 'It is good that I am afflicted'."

We see this type of contentment evidenced in Proverbs 15:6, "In the house of the righteous is much treasure, but in the revenues of the wicked is trouble". Regardless of the state of the righteous man's house in it he has much treasure. "There is more treasure in the poorest body's house, if he is godly, than in the house of the greatest man in the world, who has his fine hangings and finely-wrought beds and chairs and couches and cupboards of plate and the like. Whatever he has, he has not so much treasure in it as there is in the house of the poorest righteous soul." This should consistently remind us that no matter what lot in life the Lord gives us we still have the greatest treasure; namely Jesus Christ. What a great gift the Father has lavished upon us. We also see evidence of this in the Apostle Paul's life. Who spent many nights naked and hungry, yet was able to say, "possessing all things" (2 Cor. 6:10).

I am again reminded of the quote by Samuel Rutherford that continues to ring in my mind. It is an excellent work. If you do not own it I would suggest clicking on its picture on the sidebar and buying it for $7. It will be worth every penny. The quote is thus: “I would not want the sweet experience of the consolations of God for all the bitterness of affliction; nay, whether God come to his children with a rod or a crown, if he come himself with it, it is well". He then continues by saying, “It is better to be sick, providing Christ come to the bed-side…than to enjoy health, being lusty and strong, and never visited of God.”

I am always a little reluctant to share stories like this. It could have a great effect or it could have adverse ones. The truth is, I would be saying "our great God!" whether this blessing happened or not (or at least I'd hope I would). But as it stands the Lord has shown us His mercy, grace, and power this morning.

As many of you know Nikki and I are having our first child in January. The Lord has blessed us with not only the baby but we have also been able to save up a little, so as to provide for him. As we have had a few expenditure's, our savings and checking both have been dwindling. We found out a couple of weeks ago that a scholarship was not coming through and by today we would have to pay the college $710--wiping out our savings. To add to this, Nikki was almost a felon (she was speeding late for work one morning) her fine is due Monday. I say all of this to say that this morning I was walking over to our secretary to see if I could get an advance on my paycheck because we were a short a few dollars. We were still trusting that God was going to provide, although beginning to get a little scared.

As I began walking to the office our pastor greeted me half way (out in the blistering cold) and gave me a card. I opened it and to my surprise inside the card were 5 Benny Frank's--that's nerd for $500. Wow! Needless to say I did not need to go ask for an advance. This blessing is wonderful and amazing and a great reminder that our Father is very gracious and merciful. Another reminder that he covers over our sin (Nikki's ticket) and lavishes upon us much much more than we deserve. What is even more astonishing is that this is but a glimpse of a glimpse of what awaits us in glory. When the Lord gives us the greatest treasure--Full enjoyment of Himself! I await that day...but until then I'm enjoying His previews before seeing the full feature.

Last night we finished our next to last book on the Minor Prophets--Malachi. We will be doing two messages on Zechariah and then sum it all up with a Christmas message on the Promised King. Then we will kick the New Year off by starting a series on "Being Godly Men and Women". But until then lets take a look back at Malachi.

We listed six different marks of indifference and then gave suggestions on how to battle them.

1. When you are questioning God’s love for you focus on His electing love in redemption.
2. When you are engaging in half-hearted worship focus on God’s awesome character.
3. When you are struggling with infidelity guard yourselves and do not be faithless
4. When you are questioning God’s justice focus on His past fulfillments and future promises
5. When you are selfishly giving half-hearted devotion focus on the storehouse of God’s pleasures.
6. When you lose hope and feel like giving up look to your future redemption or judgment

For all of the details you can find the sermon here: Battling Indifference While We Wait