Have you ever felt numb towards God? Ever feel like there is a fog between you and God? You're in good company. The Psalmist of Psalm 42 felt the same way. So what did he do? What can you do? Listen to my message on Psalm 42 titled What To Do When You Are Spiritually Depressed below: Listen:Watch:
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Happy Monday! Take a few minutes and read some of these helpful articles to start your week: Family Worship For Dummies Read this helpful article on family worship. "Leading your family to worship God in your home is a good, God-honoring work. The Lord will honor those who honor Him." The Family Life of a Christian Leader Anyone involved in Christian ministry knows how challenging it is to balance ministry and family responsibilities. Many demands pull leaders in different directions—making it easy to neglect one or the other, often without even realizing it. Rhodia Notebooks
I LOVE my Rhodia notebook. Looking for some great quality paper to use for everyday note-taking and writing? Check out the link. Can You Relate?"I'm so frustrated with myself. I can't seem to break this old habit and be disciplined. I'm tempted to just give up." Perhaps you can relate with those words. I have found myself saying those things (and things like them) on multiple occasions when I failed at my attempt to be disciplined in a certain area of life. So the question is why do we fail when we attempt new disciplines? Rather it's working out, dieting, reading our Bibles more, having a consistent prayer life, etc. there seems to be a wall we hit as we try to discipline ourselves in these areas. And once we hit that wall, we quit. We feel frustrated, helpless, and discouraged. Why Failure?Why? Because as my friend Dr. Don Whitney says, "Discipline without direction is drudgery." Discipline without direction is drudgery. What he means is this: If you commit to discipline yourself in an area of life without any goal (direction) in mind, the discipline will seem pointless, aimless, and will ultimately end in failure. So what is the remedy? Give your discipline a direction. A sailboat will only go in the direction that it's sails are pointing towards. In the same way, your discipline will only go as far as you're willing to direct it. So, how do you do this well? Three Ways To Give Your Discipline Direction1. Set a goal. It sounds simple, but yet it is often overlooked by those looking to develop new disciplines in their lives. Sit down and write out what you want your discipline to end in. If you are dieting, you might write down 'losing X amount of pounds and have a habit of healthy eating.' If you are wanting to read your Bible more, you might write down 'reading through the X Bible plan and getting in the habit of reading my Bible everyday.' Whatever it is, you need a goal. So set one. 2. Get help. Our culture is individualistic to the point that no one likes humbling themselves to ask others for help and accountability. If you want to give your discipline direction, you must do this. Wanting to consistently pray more? Have someone do it with you and check up on you on the days you go at it by yourself. Wanting to spend more time at the gym? Why not invite some friends to join you in a workout plan? Get help from others to give direction to your discipline. Failure is not final. Failure is simply a door for you to walk through to try again. 3. Don't give up.
I can't begin to tell you all of the times I have heard people give up on new disciplines because they failed once. Failure is not final. Failure is simply a door for you to walk through to try again. Proverbs 24:16 says, "the righteous fall seven times, they rise again, but the wicked stumble when calamity strikes." Don't give up. Keep trying. As a kid, and even now, I would get freaked out when I saw a 'BEWARE OF DOG' or 'DO NOT ENTER' sign. Partly because my parents conditioned me to take heed to the warnings and partly because of the wonder of what would happen if I disobeyed their warnings. Throughout the Bible there are many warnings that are given. Perhaps one of the most glaring (though there are many) in Jesus' ministry is when He was delivering the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7). He warned that if a part of your life is leading you into sin you should cut it off. Why? Here is the warning: "It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go to hell" (Matt. 5:30). These warnings are not meant to lead us to guilt which then motivates us to be godly. They are meant to be signs that force us to evaluate where we are at in our Christian lives. Think of it this way: Imagine you are driving down the road one morning and to your surprise, there are no vehicles on the road. You think to yourself 'this is weird,' but you keep driving not thinking too much into until you see a sign that says 'ONE WAY' pointing the opposite direction you are going. Immediately you pull over and figure out a way to turn around. Why? Because you realize that if you keep going on the road you are going it could be disastrous. This is precisely what Biblical warnings do. They force us to slow down, evaluate, and turn around if we are heading in the wrong direction. This is why 1 Thessalonians 5:19 is so scary to me: "Do not quench the Spirit" (ESV). Immediately the question is what does it mean to quench the Spirit? To quench the Spirit means to have the ears of your heart clogged to the Spirit's voice. Quenching the Spirit doesn't mean the Holy Spirit stops speaking. Quenching the Spirit means that the Spirit is speaking, but because of your continued neglect of His voice, you can't hear Him. Let that sink in. Right now, the Spirit of God may be speaking to you about an area of your life not conformed to Christ... And you can't hear Him. To quench the Spirit means to have the ears of your heart clogged to the Spirit's voice. This is the scariest place a Christian can be: the Spirit is speaking, but you can't hear Him. It is important to note that this is not an 'overnight process.' Quenching the Spirit happens in everyday situations throughout the day. For example, you see someone out in public and the Spirit prompts you to share the Gospel with them. You begin to move toward that person to do it, but then in fear you back out and refuse. You are at home on your computer and a sexually-explicit ad pops up. The Spirit prompts you to exit the window and flee, but you stare at the image and fall into sexual sin. You are having a conversation with a friend from church and they begin to talk poorly about another church member you both know. The Spirit prompts you to redirect the conversation, but you instead jump in and tear down that person's character. You quench the Holy Spirit by refusing to obey what He is leading you to do. Again and again we could go with examples. But the point is this: You quench the Spirit by refusing to obey what He is leading you to do. And the more you disobey, the more you quench Him and hardened your heart until you get to the point that He is speaking, but you can't hear Him.
Friend, are you quenching the Holy Spirit? If God is gracious to grant you repentance (Romans 3) and show you where you have quenched His voice, will you turn back to Him? We would do well to heed the warning of Hebrews 3:7 "Today, if you hear His voice, do not hardened your heart." Happy Monday! Take a few minutes and read some of these helpful articles to start your week: Avoiding a Hardened Conscience I read this short, helpful article about having a hardened conscience this past week. Very enlightening. The Joy of a Clean Conscience
Christopher Ash wrote an excellent book on this topic. This interview will whet your appetite to buy the book.
Recently at my church we started a month-long series on evangelism. I kicked off night one by laying a foundation of why the Gospel is the message we need to proclaim as we evangelize. Listen to the entire message below:
Happy Monday! Take a few minutes and read some of these helpful articles to start your week:
Bill Nye Visits the Ark Encounter I enjoyed reading about Bill Nye's visit to the new Ark Encounter. The Frustration of Slowing Down Helpful points. Great reminders. Let the Bible Tell You How to be a Woman Clear, poignant reminder to revere the Bible. Find an article online that you found helpful? Comment below with the link to see it in next week's Monday Musings. "Truth, by definition, divides." This was a quote by the great Francis Schaeffer. The point Schaeffer was trying to get across was that truth is not neutral. It divides what is true from what is false, what is right from wrong, what is orthodoxy from heresy. Truth divides. John chapter 9 is a familiar narrative in the Gospels. In this portion of Scripture, Jesus heals a man who had been blind from birth. After Jesus healed him, the Pharisees brought the man in to interrogate him. They wanted to find out what person had sinned by healing on the Sabbath. The first conversation (v. 13-17) doesn't go very far. The blind man retells his account of what happened, but the Pharisees aren't convinced. Furthermore, they aren't willing to be convinced. So much so that they ask to talk to the man's parents to see if the man was actually born blind and if they know who had healed this man on the Sabbath. Not pleased with the answer (or lack thereof) of the man's parents, they have a third conversation with the formerly blind man. The conversation doesn't go well. The Pharisees end it by claiming that the man was "born in utter sin..." and they cast him out. What is interesting to me is that the Pharisees were never asking the formerly blind beggar questions about how he was healed so that they could know the truth. Instead, they were asking him questions about how he was healed so that they could disprove what is true (that Jesus is the Messiah). This is the very point Schaeffer was attempting to make. See, there are two groups of people in the world. Those who hear the truth and respond in obedience and faith, and those who hear truth and respond by hardening their hearts. There is a lesson to be learned in all of this: The one thing truth can't do is nothing. It will either hardened your heart or break your heart. The Pharisees knew the Law front and back. Yet, they were hard-hearted people who lacked grace for the undeserving. So much so that when a blind man is healed not one Pharisee is recorded to rejoice in the miracle. On the other hand, the blind man knew nothing of Jesus. Yet, when Jesus confronts this man and asks if he believes that He is the Son of God, the man affirms and worships Him (v. 38). So, what does all of this mean? It means this: At church you will find some of the kindest, most joyful people under the influence of the Bible. And yet, at church you will find some of the most bitter, self-righteous people under the influence of the Bible. So, what makes the difference between the two groups? The response to truth. When you hear truth, you will either walk away with a heart broken and contrite, which leads to repentance or you will walk away hard-hearted, which leads to joyless, self-righteous living. Friends, let's be people who respond to truth, by the power of the Holy Spirit, with brokenness and repentance, not indifference and apathy.
I had such a good time at the Online Legacy Summit with Ryan Frank and Jim Wideman today. To celebrate, I want to give away four of my favorite leadership books! To enter to win, follow me on Twitter (@brad_merchant) so we can stay in touch and fill out the form below! Registration is now closed. |
About MeI am a Husband to Clarissa, Pastor at Liberty Baptist Church, reader of many books, and tweeter at @brad_merchant. Archives
July 2016
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