Just one moment of indulgence…
Just one small compromise in values…
Just a little bit of childish folly…
…and you undo all that you had done so well.
Dead flies cause the ointment of the perfumer to putrefy and send forth a vile odor; so does a little folly in him who is valued for wisdom outweigh wisdom and honor. (Ecclesiastes 10:1 AMPC)
You can go a bit deeper on this in my posts Don’t Putrefy Your Leadership.
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Sanctification (saint-ification) is an ongoing process that brings out fruitfulness, joy-fullness, and enhances our testimony to others. And an essential part of this process involves other saints. Notice that this word “saints” it plural. That’s because it is a plural word every place it appears in the Bible.
Saints have gotten themselves into trouble when they tried to go solo. Like David’s sin with Bathsheba, Elijah’s slide into depression, or Peter’s denial of Jesus. But we also see saints thriving through difficult situations when they have a fellow saint alongside. Like how Barnabas gave Saul his start, Paul and Silas could sing together in prison, Silas and Timothy helped Paul minister, and how Jesus sent out His ambassadors by twos (Luke 10:1).
(Check out all of the Scriptures in this post by clicking here.)
I love the names of traveling companions John Bunyan uses in Pilgrim’s Progress: Christian travels with Faithful and Hopeful; Christiana travels with Mercy and Mr. Great-heart. And we get to travel along with some really great people as well (Proverbs 27:17; Ecclesiastes 4:9-12).
How does accountability to other saints work? Since we see togetherness so much in the early Church (look for the phrases like “each other” or “one another”), think A.C.T.S.—
(1) Admit my need for accountability. James tells us that we all stumble and that even my so-called little slip-ups are major in God’s eyes (James 3:2, 2:10). So I need help.
John Maxwell said, “Every person is undisciplined in some area of their life; in the area that I am undisciplined, that is the area where I need greatest accountability. I will not do well in my areas of weakness unless I am held accountable for better results.” We all have blind spots, we all have weak areas, and we must be humble enough to admit to those things.
(2) Choose my accountability partners prayerfully and carefully (Proverbs 12:26; 2 Corinthians 6:14). These should be trustworthy people who have the emotional and spiritual capacity to be able to come alongside me (Proverbs 17:9; Galatians 6:2).
(3) Trust my friend. Trust their counsel even when it stings a bit (Proverbs 27:6), and trust the effectiveness of their prayers for me (James 5:16).
(4) Stick with them through thick and thin. Be your brother’s keeper and let them be your keeper (Hebrews 3:12-14). We need to keep at it especially in difficult times. Notice the phrase “let us” that appears five times in Hebrews 10:19-25.
If we are living with a biblical worldview, we realize that the saints here on earth are those we will also be with for eternity. Our biblical worldview should form our understanding of both being accountable to another saint and holding other saints accountable as well.
As Jack Hayford so wisely noted, “The believer’s best defense against self-deception is through mutual accountability to one another.”
If you would like to check out the other messages in our series B.A.S.I.C. Christianity, you can click here.
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This whole series of messages is about how God can turn our grief into joy. On Easter Sunday we celebrate the most joy-filled event in all of history: the resurrection of Jesus!
At our Good Friday service, we talked about how the day was anything but good for those who were there. The day is only good for people who have been rescued from eternal, inescapable grief.
The Bible tells us that all of us have sinned and the penalty for that sin is eternal separation from God (Romans 3:23, 6:23a). But Jesus died in our place (Romans 5:8) to turn our eternal grief into eternal joy. Check out this out: God promises to exchange the cup of wrath and judgment with the cup of righteousness and peace (Isaiah 51:17-22). That’s exactly what Jesus accomplish with this death and resurrection!
(Check out all of the biblical references in this post by clicking here.)
On Friday, no one was joyful. In fact, it was just the opposite: Grief gripped their hearts and held them in fear. Probably the only one who was happy on that day was the devil.
On Saturday, the clouds of grief and fear darkened even more. It was the Sabbath day, and the Jewish followers of Jesus would still have to attend the synagogue and go through the motions of the day. Can you imagine how hollow and meaningless all of the activities seemed?
Then Sunday morning arrived. Jesus had predicted this (Matthew 12:40), but when some of the women who attended to His needs during His years of ministry came to the tomb, they were completely unprepared for what they found (Luke 24:1-7).
Jesus told them that they would see their grief turned to joy (John 16:20, 22; Luke 22:53), but when these ladies told His disciples, they still couldn’t comprehend it (Luke 24:9-12, 19-24).
Grief can so grip our emotions, that it will effect us physically as well: our eyes are clouded, our mind is fuzzy, and our ears seem stuffed with cotton (John 20:14-16; Luke 24:15-17).
So what finally convinced them? Their own hearts!
Solomon wrote, “He has planted eternity in the human heart” (Ecclesiastes 3:11). The AMPC says: He also has planted eternity in men’s hearts and minds—a divinely implanted sense of a purpose working through the ages which nothing under the sun but God alone can satisfy.
Mary finally saw Jesus and saw her grief turned to joy when she heard Jesus say, “Mary.”
These men on the road said their hearts burned in them when Jesus explained the Scripture to them (Luke 24:31-32, 27).
And when the other disciples were locked away for fear of the Jews (John 20:19), Jesus spoke to them about how His Word was fulfilled in His actions (Luke 24:44-46).
There is a hymn that ends, “You ask me how I know He lives, He lives within my heart.” There is something unmistakable and irrefutable when someone knows what it is to have their sins forgiven—to have their grief turned to unquenchable joy!
In fact, the best proof of a risen Savior is seeing a life freed from gripping grief that used to plague them.
If you don’t know Jesus as your Savior, the thought of the end of life and what comes next probably fills you with a sense of uneasiness. It doesn’t have to be this way!
If you do know Jesus, please remember that your best testimony is a life that doesn’t get bogged down in the same grief the world experiences. When you can show supernatural joy while everyone else is gripped by grief, people will turn to you (1 Peter 3:15).
Please check out the other messages in this series called Grief Into Joy by clicking here.
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Do you know this pair of cantankerous men from the Muppets? Statler and Waldorf sit in the balcony of the theatre and criticize everything that is happening on the stage. I mean everything! They have a good laugh at their barbs, but no one on the stage seems to find it humorous.
Have you ever met people like this? How do you typically respond to their criticism?
Unfortunately, those who are trying to do the right thing are often the targets of almost constant criticism. Abraham Lincoln said, “If I were to attempt to answer all the criticisms and complaints I receive, I would have no time for any other business.”
President Lincoln was a great leader but he wasn’t without fault, so to certain extent we could expect a little bit of criticism from people who didn’t like his policies. But what about Jesus? It was prophesied about Him that He would be the target of criticism (Isaiah 53:3).
(Check out all of the Scriptures in this post by clicking here.)
Those out to get Jesus even criticized those who attended to Him. In Mark 14:1-5, they are criticizing a woman who poured perfume on Jesus out of her sincere desire to honor Him. Yet they spoke about her and her actions “indignantly” (v. 4), and they rebuked and criticized her (v. 5). The Greek word in this verse literally means he snorting of horses!
Jesus stepped in to protect this God-fearing woman, “Why are you bothering her? Why are you criticizing this beautiful thing she had done for Me?”
Notice that Jesus responded to the critics, but the woman did not respond. Does that mean that we never answer critics? Are we supposed to ignore them?
First, let’s go back in time to the origin of the words critic and criticism. These words originally meant someone capable of giving a meaningful—perhaps even constructive or helpful—judgment. Think of a trained and skilled chef critiquing your recipe, as opposed to someone who cannot tell the difference between nutmeg and ginger.
The natural response is to ignore all criticism. The supernatural response is prayerfully evaluate criticism. Solomon says there is such a thing as valid criticism (Proverbs 25:12).
So who is a valid critic?
(1) Someone who loves me (Proverbs 27:17; Ephesians 4:15). Paul loved Peter and respected his leadership role in the church, but he still criticized Peter when he messed up (Galatians 2:9, 11).
(2) Someone who has experience or godly wisdom that we don’t yet have (Ecclesiastes 7:5). Micaiah had a word from God, even though King Ahab thought Micaiah simply didn’t like him (1 Kings 22:1-18).
(3) Someone who wants to hurt me. Really!? Dick Brogden wrote, “The Lord uses critics to show us our own hearts, even if what they say is not fully true, informed, or even fair. There is almost always a germ of truth in what our critics (in their own pain and disappointment) shout at us. The wise [person] will humble himself and look for the truth embedded in every oppositional interaction.” As we saw previously from Psalm 26:2, when we hear words of criticism, we need to make it a matter of prayer.
Jesus told the woman’s critics to “leave her alone” but He never defended Himself against the childish barbs (Isaiah 53:7; Matthew 27:13-14). I think we would do well to follow His example. So when criticized, take a deep breath, smile, hear them out, ask clarifying questions, and then say, “Thank you for sharing that with me. I’ll make this a matter of prayer.”
They might accuse you, but you should turn it over to God (Psalm 109:4).
The natural response is to respond all critics. The supernatural response is to respond like Jesus (see 1 Peter 2:21-23).
Remember that quote from Abraham Lincoln we saw earlier? Here’s the rest of his quote—
“From day to day I do the best I can and will continue to do so till the end. If in the end I come out all right, then the complaints and criticisms and what is said against me will make no difference. But, if the end brings me out wrong, then ten angels coming down from heaven to swear I was right would still make no difference.”
Ultimately, we are longing to hear Jesus say, “Well done.” If He cannot say that to us, does it really matter if everyone else praised us? But if Jesus says, “Well cone,” does it really matter the criticism others said about us?
Let’s ask the Holy Spirit to help us respond supernaturally to our critics—listen prayerfully to ever critic, but only respond to them as Jesus did.
If you have missed any of the other messages in this series When Sheep Bite Sheep, you can find them all here. And if you’re a pastor, be sure to check out my book When Sheep Bite.
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The dictionary’s definition for “joy” is missing just a couple of words to make it align with the biblical definition of joy.
Oswald Chambers used this same example of Solomon’s cry of, “Meaningless” in my post Cynical or Satisfied.
You can check out the full sermon from which this clip was taken by clicking here.
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King Solomon has two phrases that help us keep a biblical perspective. If we miss this, Solomon says, we are going to experience a lot of frustration. I have lots of new content every week, which you can check out on my YouTube channel.
The angel told Joseph what he needed to do, and Joseph responded immediately. This is how we should live too—No complaints, no excuses, just obedience.
“If we as leaders do not model, we lose moral authority. … The goal of teaching and preaching is not to inspire, but to transform, and transformation at the spiritual and moral level can only be instigated and maintained if the speaker is authentic. We cannot call others to abide if we do not abide, to holiness if we are not holy, to sacrifice if we do not sacrifice, to evangelism if we do not evangelize, or to Jesus if we are not with Him ourselves. … The steady legitimacy of our deeds prove the worth of our words. We demonstrate our words are worthy by living them.” —Dick Brogden, in Proverbs: Amplified and Applied
T.M. Moore writes, “In ancient Israel the tithe was a uniform rate for all people, regardless of income, social standing, or need. Everyone was expected to bring a tenth of his wealth—much of this in the form of property (animals or harvests)—to be administered by priests and Levites for the upkeep of the spiritual life of the nation. In our country, graduated tax rates, accompanied by a variety of flat taxes, have become the means for creating an ever-expanding central government and an entitlement society in which nearly half the population pay no income taxes at all and, thus, receive many services from the State at the expense of those who do pay taxes. (As an aside, it’s interesting to note that one of the early arguments for a graduated income tax appeared not in The Federalist Papers but in The Communist Manifesto.) It’s not difficult to see how such a system of taxation can be used to curry favor and purchase political power.” Check out all of T.M.’s posts in this excellent series.
J. Warner Wallace proposes that we should look at the fact that our Earth is “just right” as evidence of an intelligent Creator.
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I’ve been called to some challenging leadership roles in my life—many of which made me feel like I was in way over my head! But without a close second, the heaviest mantle I’ve ever felt is the one called “Father.” Holding my firstborn son in my arms was indescribable, and it didn’t feel any lighter or less daunting when our other children arrived.
The rabbis saw something significant in the Ten Commandments. Some people have noted that the first four Commandments are about our vertical relationship with God, while the next six are about our horizontal relationships with people. But the rabbis saw the Fifth Commandment as the linchpin—with parents in a creator-like role and as the first leader our children will be exposed to, and parents taking on the role as the first and most significant instructor for our children to know God for themselves.
God gives us the example to follow: He instructs us gently but firmly, anticipating our needs, and giving us exactly what we need (Psalm 103:13-14; Luke 6:36, 12:32; Matthew 6:8).
And then Jesus tells us to follow this example: “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). Yikes, talk about a heavy weight!
In the only song of ascent attributed to King Solomon (Psalm 127) we read both a longing for our families to be with us at the end of our journey to Zion, but also a hint of the difficulty of this.
In the middle verse of this song, we are assured that our children are given to specific parents by God on purpose. He knew what He was doing in giving them into our care. That means each parent is uniquely equipped for each child’s unique personality, temperament, and gift package.
Twice in the opening verse, Solomon uses the word “unless.” Unless we seek God’s help in building our children and watching over them, our efforts on their own will be “in vain.” That phrase (“in vain”) is used three times in the opening two verses. Solomon wrote a lot about vanity in the Book of Ecclesiastes. But it’s important to note that Solomon always uses this word in association with the phrase “under the sun.” Unless we get help from God—unless we lift our eyes up higher than this earth—our efforts alone will be frustrating and anxiety-inducing.
Remember that parents are the linchpin in the Ten Commandments? Those first four Commandments tell us to put God first, don’t create any idols to rival Him, don’t misuse His name, and trust Him enough to rest from your labors (Exodus 20:1-11). That means that we parents cannot put our kids ahead of God (Luke 14:26). Unless God is our first priority, we won’t have the spiritual, emotional, or mental stamina to parent well. Or, as C.S. Lewis noted, “When I have learned to love God better than my earthly dearest, I shall love my earthly dearest better than I do now.”
In his collection of proverbs, Solomon told us, “Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it” (Proverbs 22:6). Jesus said there is only one sure foundation, and that is knowledge and obedience of God’s Word (Matthew 7:24-27).
The final two verses of Psalm 127 assure parents that when we commit our children to God’s hands, He blesses them and uses them as His weapons, His leaders, and His culture changers.
There is not only a weight in parenting, but there is also a wait in parenting. In the last song of ascent we studied, we learned that we have a promise two times that we will (not “might”) reap a harvest, even if we have to sow seeds in tears (Psalm 126:5-6).
In the Bible, waiting is never passive. It’s an active watching to see how God will move. We see this in the story of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32) where the father waited expectantly for his wayward son to return. This Dad had given his son a firm foundation at the start of his life, and then he waited in prayer until his son “came to his senses”—until he realized that all other ways of living away from God were vanity.
In the midst of her prayers for her own prodigal son, Monica shared her concerns with Ambrose, bishop of Milan, and he said, “It cannot be that the son of those tears be lost.” Monica continued to wait for her son Augustine, sowing her seeds in tears but fully expecting the song of joy that would come with the harvest.
Years later, in his autobiography called Confessions, Augustine wrote of his mother, “My mother, Your faithful servant, wept to You for me, shedding more tears for my spiritual death than others shed for the bodily death of a son. You heard her.”
Parents, as you call out to God on behalf of your children, shed those tears in the joy of the anticipated harvest, knowing that God hears you!
If you’ve missed any of the other messages in our series looking at these songs of ascent in the Book of Psalms, you can find them all here.
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I was asked to share an article on the Converge Coaching blog.
There is no shortage of books that define “success” in our business or ministry endeavors, but as Christians, let’s try to get a more precise definition—a biblical definition.
I did a quick search for the words “success” or “successful” in just the New International Version of the Bible, and I was somewhat surprised by two things. First of all, the relatively few times this word is used: Only 25 times in the entire Scripture. We read of prayers offered for a successful journey, or a king’s reign, or a building project, success that comes to someone because of God’s favor on their life, or success in battle.
The second thing that surprised me: The word “success” isn’t used in the New Testament. The reason this surprised me is because without there being even a close second, Jesus has to be the most successful person who ever walked this planet. No one ever taught like He did, performed the miracles He did, or willingly laid down His life and was resurrected like He was. And yet the word “success” is never attached to His life.
This means we are left to draw some Holy Spirit-illuminated inferences from the Bible on how to define success. You may ask, “Why do we even need to know what ‘success’ is?” I would say we need a biblical definition for success to avoid the inevitable feelings of failure that come if things aren’t going as well as we thought they should.
In business, we often define success as revenue growth or a healthy net profit. In ministry, we typically measure success by church attendance, the number of people launched into ministry, or the amount of money given to missions work.
But what happens if we apply these metrics to the work Jesus did while He was on Earth? We see His disciples fretting over not having enough money to buy food for the congregation, and Jesus mentioning He often didn’t have a bed to sleep in, or the fact that Jesus only had one set of clothes. As a businessman, Jesus wouldn’t be considered successful by any current metrics. Even as a ministry leader, the congregation that gathered after Jesus was resurrected back to life only numbered 120 people. So if we consider Jesus as a pastor, His church wasn’t exactly thriving according to modern metrics.
After Peter’s sermon on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2) and his sermon following the healing of the lame man (Acts 3), we don’t hear much about quantitative growth throughout the rest of the Book of Acts. But in the balance of the Book of Acts, in the teachings of Jesus, and in the instructions in the epistles, we do hear substantially more about qualitative growth.
I think the clear message is that qualitative metrics are much more important to God than quantitative measurements. Specifically, I think we see the emphasis on two important qualities for godly leaders: faithfulness and excellence.
Solomon wrote, “Whatever you do, do well” (Ecclesiastes 9:10 NLT), and Paul told us, “Whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31 NIV). These things tell us that our best effort is always required—no cutting corners, no half-measures, no bare-minimum effort. Instead, we should always do the best that we can, always striving for excellence.
My Grandma drilled a poem into my memory whenever I wanted to stop at “good enough.” She would say—
How long do we do this excellent work? Until our Master returns.
Jesus said, “Who then is the faithful and wise manager, whom the master puts in charge of his servants to give them their food allowance at the proper time? It will be good for that servant whom the master finds doing so when he returns” (Luke 12:42-43 NIV).
Our devotion to these qualitative metrics of faithfulness and excellence can only truly be judged by listening to the Holy Spirit each day. He alone can speak to each of our hearts about our level of excellence and faithfulness for that day. He alone can help us know what true success is. We need to listen to His voice so that we don’t get distracted, disillusioned, and possibly even de-railed by trying to measure up to others’ quantitive metrics of success.
After all, ultimate success for any leader is to hear the applause from nail-scarred hands as our Master says, “Well done—excellently and faithfully done—My good and faithful servant!”
I can think of no better definition of success.
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A teacher of the law asked Jesus an important question. In essence, he asks, “There are a lot of commandments in the Scripture. If I have to give a student the most basic of instruction, which of the commandments is the most vital?”
The response from Jesus is especially important for two reasons:
Check out His short reply—
The most important one, is this: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” The second is this: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” There is no commandment greater than these. (Mark 12:29-31)
In this sermon from Jesus, He speaks a total of 57 words. Notice the breakdown of the words He spoke:
I wonder how many times we get this reversed? How many times do we share a short passage from the Bible and then use a whole bunch of our own words to try to explain the Scripture? Do we think the Holy Spirit needs our help to illuminate the inspired Word?
Solomon warned twice of the dangers of “many words” (Ecclesiastes 5:3, 7), and Jesus said that if we think a lot of words spoken in prayer makes that prayer effective, we are really just babbling (Matthew 6:7).
The teacher of the law is astounded at this sermon Jesus delivered. He speaks almost as many words as Jesus (52 words), but nearly all of his words are simply repeating what Jesus had said. Jesus said this man’s synopsis of His message was “wise” and indicated that he was “not far from the kingdom of God” (Mark 12:32-34).
When we are asked questions about the Bible, let’s let the Bible do most of the talking. Let’s be careful that our attitude is not one of trying to “help” the Holy Spirit, but let’s rely on the Holy Spirit to help us know what Scripture to quote, what limited commentary to share, and when to be silent to allow the Word to do its irresistible work.
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This is a weekly series with things I’m reading and pondering from Charles Spurgeon. You can read the original seed thought here, or type “Thursdays With Spurgeon” in the search box to read more entries.
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The Final, Authoritative Word
…For the mouth of the Lord has spoken (Isaiah 1:20).
It would not be worth our while to speak what Isaiah had spoken if in it there was nothing more than Isaiah’s thought—neither should we care to meditate hour after hour upon the writings of Paul, if there was nothing more than Paul in them. …
It is not mine to amend or adapt the gospel. What? Shall we attempt to improve upon what God has revealed? The Infinitely Wise to be corrected by creatures of a day? Is the infallible revelation of the infallible Jehovah to be shaped, moderated, and toned down to the fashions and fancies of the hour? God forgive us if we have ever altered His Word unwittingly. …
One Word of God is worth more than libraries of human lore. ‘It is written’ is the great gun which silences all the batteries of man’s thought.
From The Infallibility Of Scripture
As Solomon neared the end of his writings in the Book of Ecclesiastes, he made this observation, “Of making many books there is no end, and much study wearies the body” (12:12). How true that is. Have you walked through a bookstore lately?! There is no end to the opinions that people want to share with you.
But there is one thing that all of the books in all of the bookstores and all of the libraries have in common: not one of them is given to us by “the mouth of the Lord.”
There are certainly many, many books that are saturated in Scripture, but they are still the opinions of man. We need to make sure that everything we read, or every wise person that we listen to, or even every conversation that we have with ourselves are all proven to be true or false based on what God has spoken.
Jesus told us that the Holy Spirit would remind us of everything God’s mouth had spoken to us (John 14:26), and that He would guide us into all truth (John 16:13).
So go ahead and search out wise, godly books and wise, godly counselors. But remember that their word is not the final word—only the words that come from the mouth of the Lord are the authoritative words you should apply to your life.
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Craig T. Owens 