Spirit-filled Leadership

"To be filled with the Spirit, then, is to be controlled by the Spirit. Intellect and emotions and volition as well as physical powers all become available to Him for achieving the purposes of God. Under His control, natural gifts of leadership are sanctified and lifted to their highest power. The not-grieved and unhindered Spirit is able to produce the fruit of the Spirit in the life of the leader, with added winsomeness and attractiveness to his service and with the power in his witness to Christ. All real service is but the effluence of the Holy Spirit through yielded and filled lives (John 7:37-39)."

-J. Oswald Sanders, Spiritual Leadership, 117-118.

Holiness

1. It has been customary to define holy as: "purity, free form every stain, wholly perfect and immaculate in every detail."
2. The primary meaning of holy is "separate." It comes from an ancient word that meant, "to cut," or "to separate." To translate this basic meaning into contemporary language would be to use the phrase "a cut apart." Perhaps even more accurate would be the phrase "a cut above something." When we find a garment or another piece of merchandise that is outstanding, that has a superior excellence, we use the expression that it is "a cut above the rest."

RC Sproul, The Holiness of God, p.53-54

Holiness of God

What is that which gleams through me and smites my heart without wounding it? I am both a-shudder and a-glow. A-shudder, in so far as I am unlike it, a-glow in so far as I am like it.

St. Augustine

Isaiah

God was able to take a shattered man and made him a prophet. He took a man with a dirty mouth and made him God's spokesman.

RC Sproul, The Holiness of God, p.49

Revelation

God does not appear to us in the way He appeared to Isaiah. Who could stand it? God normally reveals our sinfulness to us a bit at a time.

RC Sproul, The Holiness of God, p.45

Integrity

If ever there was a man of integrity it was Isaiah Ben Amoz. He was a whole man, a together type of a fellow. He was considered by his contemporaries as the most righteous man in the nation. He was respected as a paragon of virtue. Then he caught one sudden glimpse of a Holy God. In that single moment all of his self-esteem was shattered. In a brief second he was exposed, made naked beneath the gaze of the absolute standard of holiness. As long as Isaiah could compare himself to other mortals, he was able to sustain a lofty opinion of his own character. The instant he measured himself by the ultimate standard, he was destroyed - morally and spiritually annihilated. He was undone. He came apart. His sense of integrity collapsed.

RC Sproul, The Holiness of God, p.43-44

Integrity

To be undone means to come apart at the seams, to be unraveled. What Isaiah was expressing is what modern psychologists describe as the experience of personal disintegration. To disintegrate means exactly what the word suggests, dis integrate. To integrate something is to put pieces together in a unified whole. When schools are integrated, children from two different races are placed together to form one student body. The word integrity comes from this root, suggesting a person whose life is whole or wholesome. In modern slang we say, "He's got it all together".

RC Sproul, The Holiness of God, p.43

True Repentance

“True repentance, like nitric acid, eats asunder the iron chain of sin.”

- Thomas Watson

Woe

Jesus also used the negative form of the oracle. When He spoke out in angry denunciation of the Pharisees He pronounced the judgment of God upon their heads by saying to them, "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!" ... On the lips of a prophet the word woe is an announcement of doom.

RC Sproul, The Holiness of God, p.42

Woe

When prophets announced their messages, the most frequent form the divine utterances took was the oracle. The oracles were announcements from God that could be good news, or bad news. The positive oracles were prefaced by the blessed.

RC Sproul, The Holiness of God, p.42

Woe

The term woe has gone the way of the other worn out exclamations like alas or alack or forsooth.

RC Sproul, The Holiness of God, p.42

Holiness of God

When he saw the living God, the reigning monarch of the universe displayed before his eyes in all of His holiness, Isaiah cried out, "Woe is me!"

RC Sproul, The Holiness of God, p.41

Holy

The Bible never says that God is love, love, love, or mercy, mercy, mercy, or wrath, wrath, wrath, or justice, justice, justice.

RC Sproul, The Holiness of God, p.40

Holy

To mention something three times in succession is to elevate it to the superlative degree, to attach to it emphasis of super importance.

RC Sproul, The Holiness of God, p.40

Amen

.... amen. We normally think of the word amen as something people say at the end of a sermon or of a prayer. It means simply, "It is true."

RC Sproul, The Holiness of God, p.39

Seeing God

None of us in this world is pure in heart. It is our impurity that prevents us from seeing God. The problem is not with our eyes, it is with our hearts.

RC Sproul, The Holiness of God, p.36

Holiness of God

...it is impossible for us to see god in His pure essence. Before that can ever happen we must be purified.

RC Sproul, The Holiness of God, p.36

Holiness of God

When God told Moses that he could see His back, the literal reading of the text can be translated "hind quarters." God allowed Moses to see His hindquarters but never His face.

RC Sproul, The Holiness of God, p.35

Holiness

In the year the King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated upon a throne, high and lifted up, and the train [of his robe] filled the temple. Isaiah 6:1

Holiness

God has declared, "Be ye holy, for I am holy."
To reach that goal we must understand what holiness is.

RC Sproul, The Holiness of God, p.26

Lord's Prayer

What is the first petition of the Lord's Prayer? Jesus said, "When you pray, pray like this: 'Our Father which art in heaven...'" "hallowed by thy name"

RC Sproul, The Holiness of God, p.24

Creation

There are modern theorists who believe that the world was created by nothing. Note the difference between saying that the world was created from nothing and saying that the universe was created by nothing. In this modern view the rabbit comes out of the hat without a rabbit, a hat, or even a magician. The modern view is far more miraculous than the biblical view. It suggests that nothing created something. More than that, it holds that nothing created everything - quite a feat indeed!

RC Sproul, The Holiness of God, p.21

Creation

The act of creation was the first event in history. It was also the most dazzling. The Supreme Architect gazed at His complex blueprint and shouted commands for the boundaries of the world to be set. He spoke...

RC Sproul, The Holiness of God, p.20

Creation

In our experience we have not been able to find a painter who paints without paint or a writer who writes without words or a composer who composes without notes.

RC Sproul, The Holiness of God, p.17

Nothing

Jonathan Edwards once said that nothing is what sleeping rocks dream about.

RC Sproul, The Holiness of God, p.17

God Only

"There is nothing; nothing, of course, except God."

RC Sproul, The Holiness of God, p.16

Fear of Man

The Fear of man may well be the most paralyzing power on earth. A fear so powerful that a mother and father who've just seen their own child miraculously healed of congenital blindness freeze when confronted by the religious authorities of their day. Too terrified to acknowledge a miracle. Too terrified to give God thanks for this magnificent and long-awaited display of mercy. Too terrified to celebrate with their son. Terrified of losing face with the religious establishment. Terrified of losing status in the temple.

Sam Storms, Convergence, p. 241

Worship

We sing because God has created not only our minds but also our hearts and souls, indeed our bodies as well, in such a way that music elicits and intensifies holy affections for God and facilitates their lively and vigorous expression.

Sam Storms, Convergence, p. 233

Worship / Affections

consider, for example, the singing of praises to God, which seem "to be appointed wholly to excite and express religious affections. No other reason can be assigned, why we should express ourselves to God in verse, rather than in prose, and do it with music, but only, that such is our nature and frame, that these things have a tendency to move our affections."

Sam Storms, Convergence, p. 232

Affections

"In things which concern men's worldly interest, their outward delights, their honor and reputation, and their natural relations, they have their desires eager, their appetites vehement, their love warm and affectionate, their zeal ardent; in these things their hearts are tender and sensible, easily moved, deeply impressed, much concerned, very sensibly affected, and greatly engaged; much depressed with grief at worldly losses, and highly raised with the joy at worldly successes and prosperity. But how insensible and unmoved are most men, about the great things of another world! How dull are their affections! How heavy and hard their hearts in these matters! Here their love is cold, their desires languid, their zeal low, and their gratitude small. How they can sit and hear of the infinite height, and depth, and length, and breadth of the love of God in Christ Jesus, of his giving his infinitely dear Son, to be offered up a sacrifice for the sins of men, and of the unparalleled love of the innocent, and holy, an tender Lamb of God, manifested in his dying agonies, his bloody sweat, his loud and bitter cries, and bleeding heart, and all this for enemies, to redeem them from deserved, eternal burnings, and to bring to unspeakable and everlasting joy and glory; and yet be cold, and heavy, insensible, and regardless! Where are the exercises of our affections proper, if not here? What is it that does more require them? And what can be a fit occasion of their lively and vigorous exercise, if not such a one as this?

Jonathan Edwards, quoted in Convergence, p. 230-231

Affections

The fact that a person has much affection doesn't prove he is truly spiritual. But if that individual has no affection it most assuredly proves he has no true religion.

Sam Storms, Convergence, p. 230

Affections

"yet true religion consist so much in the affections, that there can be no true religion without them. He who has no religious affection, is in a state of spiritual death, and is wholly destitute of the powerful, quickening, saving influences of the Spirit of God upon his heart. As there is no true religion where there is nothing else but affection, so there is no true religion where there is nothing else but affection, so there is no true religion where there is no religious affection. As on the one hand, there must be light in the understanding, as well as an affected fervent heart; where there is heat without light, there can be nothing divine or heavenly in that heart; so on the other hand, where there is a kind of light without heat, a head stored with notions and speculations, with a cold and unaffected heart, there can be nothing divine in that light, that knowledge is no true spiritual knowledge of divine things. If the great things of religion are rightly understood, they will affect the heart. The reason why men are not affected by such infinitely great, important, glorious, and wonderful things, as they often hear and read of, in the Word of God, is undoubtedly because they are blind; if they were not so, it would be impossible, and utterly inconsistent with human nature, that their hearts should be otherwise than strongly impressed, and greatly moved by such things."

Sam Storms, Convergence, p. 229-230

Heart - Hard

"Now by a hard heart," notes Edwards, "is plainly meant an unaffected heart, or a heart not easy to be moved with virtuous affections, like a stone, insensible, stupid, unmoved and hard to be impressed. Hence the hard heart is called a stony heart, and is opposed to a heart of flesh, that has feeling, and is sensibly touched and moved."

Sam Storms, Convergence, p. 228-229

Affections

"...without holy affection there is no true religion: and no light in the understanding is good, which don't [sic] produce holy affection in the heart; no habit or principle in the heart is good, which has no such exercise; and no external fruit is good, which don't [sic] proceed from such exercises."

Sam Storms, Convergence, p. 228

Affections

Only as people are affected by the great truths of Christianity are they moved to love God and seek him and plead with him in prayer and brought low in humility and repentance. Simply put, affections are the spring and source of virtually all significant spiritual endeavors.

Sam Storms, Convergence, p. 228

Affections

Spirituality is actually of little benefit to anyone, least of all to ourselves, if not characterized by lively and powerful affections. Nothing is so antithetical to true religion as lukewarmness. God is displeased with weak, dull, and lifeless inclinations. Consider those many biblical texts where our relationship to God is compared to "running, wrestling or agonizing for a great prize or crown, and fighting with strong enemies that seek our lives, and warring as those that by violence take a city or kingdom."

Sam Storms, Convergence, p. 227

Joy

Joy in Jesus! Perter describes it as being inexpressible or unutterable.
This is a joy so profound that it is beyond mere words. It is ineffable, all-consuming, overwhelming, speechless joy! This joy defies all human efforts at understanding or explanation. The words have not yet been created that would do justice to the depths of this kind of joy. The human tongue has not yet been found that can articulate the heights to which this kind of joy elevates us.

Sam Storms, Convergence, p. 225

Affections

The essence of life in heaven, says Edwards, "consists very much in affection. There is doubtless true religion in heaven, and true religion in its utmost purity and perfection. But according to the Scripture representation of the heavenly state, the religion of heaven consists chiefly in holy and mighty love and joy, and the expression of these in most fervent and exalted praises."

Sam Storms, Convergence, p. 222

Affections

How do "affections" differ from "emotions" or "feelings"?

Perhaps it would be best to say that whereas affections are not less than emotions, they are surely more. Emotions can often be no more than physiologically heightened states of either euphoria or fear that are unrelated to what the mind perceives as true.
Affections, on the other hand, are always the fruit or effect of what the mind understands and knows. The will or inclination is moved wither toward or away from something that is perceived by the mind. An emotion or mere feeling, on the other hand, can rise or fall independently of and unrelated to anything in the mind. One can experience an emotion or feeling without it properly being an affection, but one can rarely if ever experience an affection without it being emotional and involving intense feelings that awaken and move and stir the body.

Sam Storms, Convergence, p. 220

Affections

Affections are more than ideas or thoughts or intellectual notions in our heads. They are lively and vigorous passions, for example, of either delight, love, joy, and hope, on the one hand, or displeasure, hatred, grief, or despair, on the other. When we evaluate our response to someone or something in life, we use such terms as sorrow, happiness, revulsion, attraction, bitterness, anger, peace, fear, and delight.

Sam Storms, Convergence, p. 219

Gifts

...suppression of spiritual zeal is never the answer. Too much power is never the problem, but too little maturity is. I know of no place in Scripture where the absence of spiritual power is portrayed as a good thing.

Sam Storms, Convergence, p. 212-213

Gifts - Spiritual

Power without purity leads to fanaticism. But purity without power often leads to Pharisaism.

Sam Storms, Convergence, p. 211

Gifting

Gifts are not the goal, but rather the means by which we attain the goal of a transformed heart and a Christ-like life.

Sam Storms, Convergence, p. 210

Prophecy

If what someone passes off as "prophecy" consistently tears down and discourages and disregards the welfare of the one for whom it is allegedly intended, you are well within your rights to question whether the purported "revelation" came from God.

Sam Storms, Convergence, p. 207

Prophecy

...test every voice by the tendency it has to produce and prolong the fruit of the Spirit in your life.

Sam Storms, Convergence, p. 207

Humility

But it is also one of the most terrifying verses in all of Scripture. For if God dwells with the humble, he departs from the proud. If God draws near to the lowly in spirit, he withdraws from the haughty and arrogant. If he blesses those who go low, his disfavor rests on those who lift themselves up. God will have nothing to do with proud, self-reliant, self-sufficient, self-promoting, self-congratulatory, self-aggrandizing men and women. If he is present and intimate with the humble, he is absent from the proud. "God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble" (James 4:6; 1 Peter 5:5).

Sam Storms, Convergence, p. 199-200

Humility

...humility is simply another way of describing preference for or submission to God's will. The proud want their way. The humble want God's way. The proud will exploit God's voice for their own glory, to exalt themselves in the eyes of others. The humble use it for God's glory. The proud man is so full of himself that there is little room for God. He is so enamored with what other say about him that he can't hear what God says to him.

Sam Storms, Convergence, p. 199

Prophecy - The Voice of God

I think Willard's point is that the question, "How do I hear the voice of God?" needs to be replaced by the question, "What would I do if I heard it?" Are you truly open to the extent to which the voice of God might disturb your plans? Are you prepared to follow the Father's faintest whisper, no matter where it leads? If not, it's not likely you well ever hear it.

Sam Storms, Convergence, p. 198-199

Prophecy

We assume that God speaks only to special people, unique people, extraordinarily endowed people, people with spectacular gifts, people with ecclesiastical authority, people with power and prestige and influence. We tend to think being human debars s from hearing God: we are too frail, too fragile, too fickle, too sinful, too weak. We don't have beauty or position; we can't speak well in public; our education is minimal, and therefore God wouldn't speak to us. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

Sam Storms, Convergence, p. 198

Prophecy

...it is important to remember that one doesn't have to be remarkable to hear God's voice. God doesn't speak merely to alleged superstars or super-saints. He speaks to ordinary believers who are exceptional only by virtue of their insatiable hunger for him.

Sam Storms, Convergence, p. 196

Prophecy

...there are several other ways in which God communicates with his people. God has spoken audibly

Sam Storms, Convergence, p. 193

Doctrine

'Other people may be taken in by the false teacher who deny Christ, but John does not believe that his 'children' will do so. They have their source in God cf 3:10), and consequently they have the inner power of the truth to enable them to withstand error. In this sense they can be said to have 'overcome' the upholders of false teaching. This probably does not mean that hey have physically driven them out of the church; rather they have proved victorious over the temptation to accept false doctrine. False belief is as much a sin as unrighteous behavior or lack of love [emphasis mine]. Victory over it, however, is not due to any innate strength of believers, but rather to the fact that the One who lives in them is greater, i.e., more powerful, than the one at work in the world. God is mightier than the evil one."

Howard Marshall, The Epistles of John, p. 208

Spirit of God

"Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already".
1 John 4:1-3

Prophecy - Cessationists

Cessationists insist that prophecy in the New Testament is the infallible report of a divinely inspired revelation, no different in quality from Old Testament prophecy and therefore equal to the Bible itself in authority Prophecy, they argue, consists of the very words of God himself. Prophecy, therefore, is infallible and binding on the theological and moral convictions of all Christians.

Sam Storms, Convergence, p. 170

Prophecy

"Why is it that when we speak to God we call it prayer, but when God speaks to us we call it schizophrenia?"

Lily Tomlin

Enemy of the Church

The path into the future is through the past. ...the enemy of the church is not primarily structural or cultural, whether in the form of postmodernity or secularization, but in "a churchmanship that refuses to deploy its doctrinal, theological and sacramental resources for the fight. The nature of the crisis is theological amnesia concerning the dogmatic core of historic and evangelical Christianity, to which the answer... is recovery of the classical practices of the church as a way of reconnecting with the gospel."

Sam Storms, Convergence, p. 162

Sacraments

...the sacraments are not barriers between God and man, but bridges. They are not designed to keep God at arm's length or to inhibit our intimacy with him. The very purpose of a sacrament is to mediate the sanctifying, life-changing, powerful presence of divine grace to the heart of the believer. Sacraments are not substitutes for the person of Christ, but the divinely-ordained means by which our Lord makes himself and his love and his sin-killing power available to the redeemed.

Sam Storms, Convergence, p. 159

Remember

As [Gordon] Fee points out, anamnesis [remembrance] is not the recalling of past events for the sake of nostalgia; rather, in the light of the resurrection, it is the recalling into the present the very real and substantial events of death and resurrection, in order that they might be celebrated, enjoyed, even participated in.

Sam Storms, Convergence, p. 158-159

Worship

"The charismatic form of expression seems to be linked to a theology of immediacy - an immediacy of the Word grasped via the text, an immediacy of God's presence grasped through experience, an immediacy of relationship expressed by speaking in tongues and an immediacy that by-passes history."

Gerard Delteil, Convergence, p. 157

Worship

...if left unchecked and not tethered to biblical truth, contemporary worship will come to be valued only for the interest it can generate or experience it can induce. In other words, worship becomes an instrument for the effects it produces rather that celebration of God as he is in himself. In such cases "worship takes on an authority of its own so that only in and through the experience of worship, and the way we perform in worship, can grace be appropriated; hence, the pressure to make something happen. Worship as spiritual formation is sidelined in favour of worship as effect."

Sam Storms, Convergence, p. 154

Worship

Cessationists view God's presence as a theological assumption to be extolled while charismatics think of it as a tangible reality to be felt.

Sam Storms, Convergence, p. 153

Word & Spirit - Together

If the divinely ordained marriage of Word and Spirit means anything it is that we must never capitulate to the lie that they cannot dance in tandem, or that something is intrinsic to what they are that invariably leads one to subordinate, or cancel out, the other. I applaud all those who contend that both must be retained and given their full rights in the church. I, for one, refuse to concede that a healthy revivalism that thrives on intercession, intimacy and immediacy cannot co-exist with a classical, sacramental, Word-based ministry. I believe they can. I believe they must.

Sam Storms, Convergence, p. 139

Toronto Blessing

...Toronto has its flaws, some of them quite serious. The pressure to find biblical warrant for bizarre physical manifestations was more than its apologists could resist. Many simply "overinterpreted" the significance of what was happening. Others felt compelled to artificially prop up and perpetuate the renewal when it was obviously (and by God's design) on the wane. And critics are right in pointing out that the Scriptures did not play as central a role as they should have.

Sam Storms, Convergence, p. 135

Preaching

Our goal is a life-changing encounter with Christ as he comes to us by means of the text.

Sam Storms, Convergence, p. 131

Gospel

"The main business of the church is to ensure that the gospel finds a home within its worshipping life. It is this gospel, rather than the church's relevancy or contemporaneity, which determines its identity and mission."

Sam Storms, Convergence, p. 131

Doctrine

But good theology should never diminish zeal. God never meant it to. When truth is searched for, discovered, and defined it has the power to inflame the heart and empower the soul and energize the will to do what otherwise may seem burdensome and boring. Theological truth is not the problem. Arrogance is. Contrary to what some charismatics have suggested, the flesh is the enemy, not the "mind". god gave us brains to employ in service of the kingdom and to enjoy him and all that he is for us in Jesus. People can be just as arrogant and proud of their intellectual simplicity as others are of their brilliance.

Sam Storms, Convergence, p. 127

Tongues

"contrary to the opinion of many, spiritual edification can take place in ways other than through the cortex of the brain. Paul believed in an immediate communing with God by means of the S/spirit that sometimes bypassed the mind; and in verses 14-15 he argues that for his own edification he will have both."

Gorden Lee, The First Epistle to the Corinthians, p. 657

Tongues

Clearly, Paul believed that a spiritual experience beyond the grasp of his mind, which is what I mean by "transrational", was yet profoundly profitable. He believed that it wasn't absolutely necessary for an experience to be rationally cognitive for it to be spiritually beneficial and glorifying to God.

Sam Storms, Convergence, p. 125

Holy Spirit

...the essence of a spiritual gift: the Holy Spirit energizing and enabling my spirit to do what otherwise couldn't do.

Sam Storms, Convergence, p. 124

Third-Wavers

Third-Wavers typically differ from their Pentecostal brethren on two fronts: (1) not all of them insist that Spirit-baptism is separate from and subsequent to conversion, and (2) few of them argue that tongues is the initial physical evidence of Spirit-baptism or that it is normative for all believers. The Third Wave has also distanced itself from the excesses of the Word of Faith movement as well as other forms of the so-called "Health and Wealth" or "Prosperity" gospel.

Sam Storms, Convergence, p. 110

Spirit & Word

I hope we can agree that if a biblical command is worth obeying it is worth obeying wholeheartedly and with abandon. One cannot be "somewhat" committed to the Spirit and "somewhat" committed to the Word. One must be wholly and radically committed to both. Otherwise, both Spirit and Word will end up being diluted and underemphasized. Spirit and Word were never meant to be "balanced" with each other, far less played off against each other , but "wedded" to each other!

Sam Storms, Convergence, p. 103

Prophecy

prophecy itself is one of the most powerful and reassuring tools God has given us by which we are to wage war in a world run amok. A much-neglected passage in Paul's first letter to Timothy makes the point with unmistakable clarity. "This charge I entrust to you, Timothy, my child, in accordance with the prophecies previously made about you, that by them you may wage the good warfare, holding faith and a good conscience" (1 Timothy 1:18-19a; emphasis mine).

Sam Storms, Convergence, p. 90

God Immanence

I believed God was near. But I rarely sensed it, rarely lived as if it were true. I had become an evangelical deist, one who worshiped a God far off, removed from the daily struggles of life.

Sam Storms, Convergence, p. 53

Healing

We began obeying the Scriptures concerning our responsibility to pray for the sick. It wasn't a question of who or how many did or did not get healed. It was a question of whether or not we were going to be obedient. I embraced the perspective of John Wimber who once said, "I would rather pray for one-hundred people and see only one get healed than not to pray for any and none get healed." In other words, I finally reached a point at which I refused to allow the fear of failure to justify my disobedience to the Word.

Sam Storms, Convergence, p. 45

Worship

When God's people exalt and enjoy him, he releases his power to heal them, to encourage them, and to enlighten them, among other things, in a way that is somewhat unique. When God's people worship, he goes to war on their behalf (2 Chronicles 20). When God's people worship, he enthrones himself in their midst (Psalm 22:3). When God's people worship, he speaks to them and guides them (Acts 13:1-3). When God's people worship, he delivers them from their troubles or comforts and sustains them in the midst of hardship (Acts 16:19-40).

Sam Storms, Convergence, p. 44

What Are You Passionate About?

Is it a problem that some of us who are tranquil as still water about biblical doctrine and ecclesial mission are red-faced about Nancy Pelosi and the talking heads on MSNBC?
Is it a problem that some who haven't shared the gospel with their neighbors in months or years are motivated to vent to strangers on the street about how scary national health care will be?
If we were half as outraged by our own sin and self-deception as we are by the follies of our political opponents, what would be the result?
If we rejoiced as much that our names are written in heaven as we do about such trivialities as basketball brackets, what would be the result?
So if what you're afraid of is a politician or a policy or a culture or the future of Western civilization, don't give up the conviction but give up the fear.
Work for justice.
Oppose evil.
But do it so that your opponents will see not fear but trust, optimism, and affection.

Russell Moore

Message That Revives

I can tell when I am hearing a sermon on a doctrine that the speaker hasn’t experienced firsthand. It’s not that he’s lying. He himself does not realize; he believes that when he lays out a homiletically top-rate teaching, he has done all there is to do.

The sermon, as it leaves his lips, makes a hollow sound on the ears of the congregation, but no one realizes that either. It is homiletically top-rate and three-pointed. They know they should appreciate it if they are spiritual, so they believe they have been well-served. They say, “It was a good sermon.” If this goes on Sunday after Sunday, a vague melancholy sets in unawares

A gap between theology and reality widens, and something fascinating occurs: The most doltish man in the pew becomes a linguistic sophisticate. Abstract exhortations to “joy” or “reigning in life” from the pulpit are transposed on impact from their common meanings to a different category of meaning, what Francis Schaeffer might call “upper story” thinking.

But when the pastor is a man who has pressed into believing God’s promises in the morning, and at noon, and in the afternoon, and when he meets us at week’s end to report the concrete faithfulness of God on his spiritual living, the hearers—and language itself—are revived.

Andrée Seu