Turn Off The News!

Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible. 

Anti-anxiety medications are prescribed at a higher rate than any other medication. As a nation, we have become—literally—a nervous wreck!

I think much of our handwringing and stomach churning is from our obsession with keeping up with “current events.” We have alerts endlessly dinging, screaming at us, “Look at this! Can you believe he said that?! Did you hear about this? We must do something about that!” 

Christian, where is your hope? In what are you trusting for relief?

God says through Isaiah that sinners are terrified and godless people tremble at the news—

Sinners in Zion are terrified; trembling has seized the godless. “Who among us can live with the consuming fire? Who among us can live with everlasting burning?” (Isaiah 33:14)

As these anxiety-plagued people are wondering how they can survive the latest deluge of terrible news, God answers the burning question of real security. He says it is…

…One who walks righteously and speaks with integrity, one who rejects unjust gain and shakes his hands so that they hold no bribe; one who stops his ears from hearing about bloodshed and shuts his eyes from looking at evil; he will dwell on the heights, his refuge will be the impregnable rock; his bread will be given him, his water will be sure. (Isaiah 33:15-16)

Did you catch what was in the middle of that list? Stop listening to the reports of bloodshed and stop watching all the news reports of evil people doing evil things. 

Instead, God says that we should be watching our own lives closely so that we are:

  • walking righteously 
  • speaking with integrity 
  • not falling for the latest fads 
  • not being “bribed” by so-called influencers to see things their way 

When we are focused on God and on living our lives according to His righteous standards, we won’t have any time or mental energy to give to the evil and bloodshed in the headlines. Rather, we will live securely—protected and blessed by our loving Savior and Lord! 

Isaiah 33 goes on to describe what we will notice when we turn off the world’s news and gaze at God: “Your eyes will see the King in His beauty” (v. 17), you will no longer be shaken by “fierce people” (v. 19), but you will know that “the majestic One, the Lord, will be for us…and will save us” (vv. 21-22). 

Turn off the world’s news and dive into God’s Good News instead. You will immediately feel God’s peace replacing any fearful trembling in your heart and mind. 

You may also want to check out:

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Links & Quotes

You are more likely to act yourself into good feelings than you are to feel yourself into action. Leaders need to get moving and keep moving! Check out this full conversation from The Craig and Greg Show.

I have lots of new content every week, which you can check out on my YouTube channel.

In news that’s not surprising at all, many recent paleontological discoveries confirm to exactly what would be expected if we take the biblical account of Creation and a global Flood literally.

John Piper was asked to weigh-in on the value of repetitive phrases in worship songs. He said, “The issue’s not repetition per se but whether there is enough substance, enough rich content of truth about God woven into the repetitions to justify them, to warrant them. That’s the issue. There’s a difference between repetitions that are called forth by the repeated crescendo of new, glorious truth, and repetitions that serve as a kind of mantra without sufficient truth that is simply used to sustain or intensify a mood. Moods in worship should be awakened and sustained primarily by truth, assisted by music—not primarily by music with a little truth thrown in to justify the singing.”

Pastor John Piper used Psalm 136 as an example in the post above. T.M. Moore also shared this thought about Psalm 136: “The term most frequently used to describe this everywhere-present-and-always-at-work love of God is translated as ‘lovingkindness’ or, in some versions, ‘steadfast love.’ Especially Psalm 136, with its antiphonal arrangement of verses, insists that the cosmos is upheld, sustained, and pervaded by the lovingkindness of God. … It would improve our learning to pray without ceasing if we simply took some time out during the day to thank the Lord for the many ways His steadfast love surrounds, sustains, and swarms us at every moment!”

“When people refer to a man as a man of the Book, meaning the Bible, he’s generally found to be a man of multitudinous books, which simply isolates the one Book to its proper grandeur. The man who reads only the Bible does not as a rule know it or human life.” —Oswald Chambers

Men’s Health magazine shared an interview with Jeremy Renner, who was nearly killed in a tragic accident. I love his attitude about making today better than yesterday. His words remind me of a poem my grandma used to use to motivate me to keep “besting” what I had already done.

Christopher Ash writes about reading the Psalms through the lens of Jesus. He concludes this way: “I remember seeing on the wall of a church the words of Psalm 20:4: ‘May [the Lord] grant you your heart’s desire and fulfill all your plans!’ How wonderful, you might think. The Bible promises me all that my heart desires. Until you read the psalm and realize that Psalm 20 is a prayer for the king in David’s line. Ultimately, it is a prayer that Jesus will have His heart’s desire granted and that His plans will be fulfilled. And they will! The Psalms are not all about me. If I think they are, I will end up disillusioned. But when I grasp that they are all about Christ, my heart lifts in joy that He is the blessed Man and I belong to Him.”

Unique Worshippers

Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible. 

How do you know if something is lavishly beautiful or a totally inappropriate wastefulness? Let’s talk about how people worship God.

Check out this episode of The Podcast.

The Scriptures I mention in this post: Luke 7:36-50; John 12:1-8; 1 Samuel 16:7.

Register for my upcoming cohort here. Space is limited to 10 cohorts, so register soon.

The blog post and video I mention in this episode is Awesome God, Awesome Praise.

I talk more about one of the ladies who anointed Jesus in the post and video Grateful for what you have. I also have two blog posts about Mary:

Keep up with everything else I have going on—including my newest book and the cohort I am facilitating— by clicking here.

►► Would you please prayerfully consider supporting this ministry? My Patreon supporters get behind-the-scenes access to exclusive materials. ◀︎◀︎

Ascending (part 2)

Every year, Jews from around the world made four pilgrimages up to Jerusalem for various feasts and sacrifices. These journeys reminded them of God’s goodness as they went to the Temple to worship, and they helped refocus on God’s ways as they returned to their regular routines.

Jerusalem is over 2500 feet above sea level, so the pilgrimage there was a physical workout as well as a spiritual workout. These workouts were beneficial for God’s people, preparing them to minister in their cities in the following months.

The Book of Psalms contains 15 songs that these pilgrims would sing to and with each other as they traveled up to Jerusalem. These Psalms of Ascent are still instructive for Christians today.

As we resume this series this summer, I hope you can join me for this look at the life-changing truths these pilgrimage songs can still teach today to all of God’s people. We would love to have you join us in person, but if you are unable to do so you can watch the videos of these messages on my YouTube channel.

You can check out the messages we shared last summer from Psalms 120-127 here. And the current series of messages include:

A Leadership Biography: Heman

The psalmist Heman is the grandson of Samuel. “These are the ones who served with their sons: From the sons of the Kohathites were Heman the singer, the son of Joel, the son of Samuel, the son of Elkanah, the son of Jeroham, the son of Eliel, the son of Toah” (1 Chronicles 6:33-34; 1 Samuel 1:1, 20). 

Samuel came from the line of Levites (specifically the Kohathites), which is the same family to which Moses, Aaron, and Miriam belonged. While the tabernacle of the Lord was mobile in the wilderness, the Kohathites were responsible for carrying the furnishings of the tabernacle (Numbers 4:4-20).

When the permanent temple was constructed in Jerusalem, the responsibility of the Kohathites changed. They now oversaw the worship in the temple, and Heman is listed as the chief worship leader, with others to his right and left. “Heman’s brother Asaph stood at his right hand, Asaph the son of Berechiah, the son of Shimea. … On the left hand were their kinsmen the sons of Merari: Ethan the son of Kishi, the son of Abdi, the son of Malluch” (1 Chronicles 6:39, 44). 

And then we see Heman’s family line continuing in the roles of worship leaders after him: ”All these were the sons of Heman the king’s seer to exalt him according to the words of God, for God gave fourteen sons and three daughters to Heman. All of these were under the direction of their father to sing in the house of the Lord, with cymbals, harps, and lyres, for the service of the house of God. Asaph, Jeduthun, and Heman were under the direction of the king. Their number who were trained in singing to the Lord, with their relatives, all who were skillful, was 288“ (1 Chronicles 25:5-7). 

The Book of Psalms contains just one psalm that Heman composed (Psalm 88). 

(You can read all of the biblical references I listed in this biography here.)

Our Focus In Worship

We don’t worship because we have a comfortable setting. We worship God because He is worthy to be worshiped! Our focus is not on these temporal things, but on His eternal, majestic glory!

Check out the full sermon from which this clip comes here.

Remembering Prompts Worship

Remembering all God has done is the antidote to any fear or anxiety that we may feel. Recalling who God is and what He has done cannot help but lead us into worship of our awesome King! Then, as the words of an old chorus remind us—

🎶 In the presence of Jehovah
God Almighty, Prince of Peace
Troubles vanish, hearts are mended
In the presence of the King 🎶

I have shared a couple of other insights from Psalm 77 here:

The God Who Is Our Salvation

Selah means to pause and carefully consider. 

“The God who is our salvation” is on each side of this sacred pause. What can we consider from this? 

  • God is my salvation
  • God is for me
  • God is my daily provision
  • God is my light and my life
  • God is my escape from death
  • God is worthy of all my worship

Let’s take time to slow down and truly savor the inspired thoughts when the Holy Spirit moved the biblical author to pause. There are powerful, encouraging, life-changing truths just waiting to burst into our heart and mind!

I shared more about this Selah pause in this message and this message. You may also be interested in our whole series looking at the all the Selahs in the Bible.

Links & Quotes

We are to love the sinner but hate the sin. This is hard to do, especially when the sin they are doing is directed at us and making us angry! Jesus gave us a great example in these times of high anger: withdraw. Check out my full message “A Christlike Response to Skeptics.” I have lots of new content every week, which you can check out on my YouTube channel.

“In many pagan religions the purpose of worship is to placate the gods—to keep them happy and to stay on their good side, lest they mess with, you know, the harvest or procreation or whatever. Worship is thus a work pagans do to earn or keep the favor of their deity. Christians don’t worship to placate God or earn His favor. We don’t worship to make God happy or bring Him pleasure. God is all-satisfied, all-happy, and all-pleased in Himself alone. We add nothing to Him when we come together to worship. At the same time, as we worship, God adds Himself to us. He deigns to commune with us, inhabits our praises, and brings us into His presence and joy in ways that transform all we are, think, feel, value, say, and do. … In worship, rightly conceived and conducted, our minds and imaginations expand beyond their everyday thoughts and dreams, stretched and molded to fill up with the glory of the heavenly throne room, to be conformed to the mind of Christ, and to see the world as He does (1 Corinthians 2:16).” —T.M. Moore

J. Warner Wallace shares two reasons why we can still consider the Bible relevant today.

My grandpa had honey bees on his farm, and I’ve been intrigued by them ever since that time. In fact, honey bees were subject of my semester-long research project in my ecology class. So I’m always fascinated to read more discoveries about these amazing insects!

The level of a leader’s strength and courage is directly tied to the leader’s meditation upon God’s word. God’s wisdom transforms a leader’s heart and sharpens his thoughts. This is what gives the leader the necessary courage to lead people in a God-honoring way. I have a whole series of posts on godly leadership where I expand more on these thoughts. 

Links & Quotes

Peter described the ministry of Jesus as “doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil.” Historical records tell us the first Christians lived this exact same way! This clip is from our current series of sermons on prayer. I have lots of new content every week, which you can check out on my YouTube channel.

John Piper has some great advice for finding the main point of a chapter in the Book of Psalms.

Belshazzar was unknown outside the Bible for quite awhile, prompting one biblical skeptic to say, “the whole story [in the Book of Daniel] is disfigured and falsified by the author, who was neither an eye-witness of the occurrences, nor accurately acquainted with the history of them.” Once again, archeology has confirmed the historicity of both Belshazzar and Daniel.

On YouVersion I shared this on Job 1:20-22. The Old English spelling of worship is “worthship.” We worship God because He has infinitely greater worth than any other person or thing. It’s not that Job wasn’t sad about his losses, but He saw Jehovah as the One of greatest worth in spite of his earthly losses.

“Leaders are responsible for building organizations where people continually expand their capabilities to understand complexity, clarify vision, and improve shared mental models—that is, they are responsible for learning.” —Peter M. Senge, in The Fifth Discipline

Never stopping praying for your loved ones. It could be that with their very last breath they will call on Jesus as their Savior!