Mike Matheny is the manager of the St. Louis Cardinals. He succeeded the legendary Tony La Russa in 2012, who retired after winning the 2011 World Series. Matheny, whose career as a catcher was cut short in 2006 at age 35 due to complications from numerous concussions, was at that time the youngest manager in the game. This book builds on a five-page letter that he sent to the Chesterfield (just outside of St. Louis) parents who had asked him to coach a youth baseball team. The letter would end up on the internet, go viral, and be referred to as the “Matheny Manifesto”. In the book Matheny shares his eight keys to success: leadership, confidence, teamwork, faith, class, character, toughness and humility.
Matheny’s letter begins:
“I always said that the only team that I would coach would be a team of orphans, and now here we are. The reason for me saying this is that I have found the biggest problem with youth sports has been the parents.”
Ouch.
Despite the letter, Matheny was asked by the parents to coach the team. He states: “They gave me the chance, and I put into practice what I believed was right. It wasn’t always easy, and not everyone was on board from the beginning. Not everyone lasted. But good values are good values for a reason, and in the end, they work.”
Matheny shares the lessons he and fellow coach John Mabry taught and the many they learned in the process, some painful but all valuable. He tells a lot of stories that I enjoyed along the way, from his childhood and upbringing, his days as a young ballplayer, a college player, a minor leaguer, and a big leaguer (as both a player and a manager). He also examines how the values he emphasizes apply to life beyond baseball, beyond sports, and can plant a seed of hope in the next generation.
He shares the core values that affected everything on and off the field:
Service
Teamwork
Discipline
Excellence
Responsibility
Leadership
The following were their nonnegotiables:
A baseball experience focused on the boys
Baseball played the right way—with class
Attitude, concentration, and effort (ACE)—factors the boys can control (with excellence required)
Biblical truths as our moral compass
A culture of respect from players, parents, and coaches
An emphasis on the mental aspect of the game
The parent’s role as a silent source of support
The players’ responsibility to make themselves better
Matheny states that in his personal life as well as his professional life, he has—without doubt—learned more from failure than from success.
He shares his appreciation of (as do I) legendary UCLA Men’s Basketball Coach John Wooden. He states that some refer to Wooden as the fountainhead of successful modern leadership, and they don’t even limit it to sports. He writes that Wooden is the coach to whom he owes the most, the one whose approach and philosophy he works hardest to imitate, though the two never met. He shares helpful maxims from Wooden in a number of categories.
I was particularly interested in the sections where Matheny discussed his faith, though that is unfair, because it’s clear that Matheny’s faith impacts all aspects of his life. I enjoyed hearing the story of his conversion. After hearing a revival speaker at his church one evening he was troubled about whether he was truly a believer, despite being a regular church attender. He couldn’t sleep that night and got out of bed to talk to his parents. He writes: “They got out their Bible, opened it to the New Testament book of Romans, and walked me through its Road to Salvation. Then they prayed with me, and I received Christ.”
About his faith he writes: “I have committed to my players and coaches that I will never force my faith down their throats or assume they see the world as I see it; however, neither will I cower from any question. My goal is to live in such a way that what I believe is obvious by how I go about my business and how I treat others.”
Respect is one of the values that he tried to instill in the boys on his youth team. He states: “It’s one thing to get kids to treat their opponents with respect—shake their hands and say, “Good game,” and mean it—win or lose. It’s quite another to get them to extend that courtesy to umpires.” It was a requirement that the boys would shake the hands of the umpire after each game, win or lose.
Matheny writes that his career was exceptional in only three ways: its longevity (especially for a catcher); that he got to play in the postseason four times, including a World Series; and because of his defense. Of his defense, Matheny won four Gold Gloves, and holds the Major League Baseball record for most consecutive games without an error.
I enjoyed Matheny discussion of his favorite teammates. About Yadier Molina, his current catcher on the Cardinals, he writes “I now manage the most valuable catcher in the game—maybe in history.”
Matheny states that “Character is forged not on the mountaintop but in the valley”. A moving part of the book is his recollection of how his career ended as a result of complications from a number (he doesn’t know how many) concussions. He writes that he went from an everyday starter, respected by teammates and peers as a no-nonsense competitor, to virtually an invalid almost overnight.
He discusses a topic near and dear to my heart – servant leadership. He states that the point of servant leadership is leading by serving. He writes about real estate investments that went bad during the economic downturn resulting in personal embarrassment when the news became public in St. Louis. Needing help like never before, he reached out to eight trusted men and asked if they would come alongside, counsel him and hold him accountable. These men would become what he refers to as his personal board. They are mostly business leaders, with one in ministry. They are leaders in their respective fields and follow the servant leadership model Matheny had been studying. They would later help him prepare for the interview with Cardinal General Manager John Mozeliak, which would result in Matheny being offered the job. In discussing his role as manager of the Cardinals, Matheny states: “My job is to show leadership and impact people. That’s what we were trying to accomplish with the youth-league team, and now I’m applying that same approach in a big-league clubhouse.”
Bob Costas writes a short “Afterword”. This is a well-written book that Matheny collaborated with Jerry B. Jenkins on.
As a St. Louis Cardinals fan I was aware of Matheny and that he was a Christian. After reading this book and getting to know more about him I appreciate him even more.
The Generous Justice Book Club
Generous Justice: How God’s Grace Makes Us Just by Tim Keller
This book, which I had read when it was first published, was listed under recommended reading in Matt Perman’s fine book What’s Best Next. Tammy and I are reading it and being challenged on every page. Won’t you read along with us? This week we’re reading:
The text that most informs Christians’ relationships with their neighbors is the parable of the Good Samaritan.
Do you love God with every fiber of your being every minute of the day? Do you meet the needs of your neighbor with all the joy, energy, and fastidiousness with which you meet your own needs? That is the kind of life you owe your God and your fellow human beings.
“Surely,” he implied, “you don’t mean I have to love and meet the needs of everyone!” The Good Samaritan In response, Jesus tells the story of the Good Samaritan.
What was Jesus doing with this story? He was giving a radical answer to the question, What does it mean to love your neighbor? What is the definition of “love”? Jesus answered that by depicting a man meeting material, physical, and economic needs through deeds. Caring for people’s material and economic needs is not an option for Jesus. He refused to allow the law expert to limit the implications of this command to love. He said it meant being sacrificially involved with the vulnerable, just as the Samaritan risked his life by stopping on the road. But Jesus refuses to let us limit not only how we love, but who we love.
By depicting a Samaritan helping a Jew, Jesus could not have found a more forceful way to say that anyone at all in need—regardless of race, politics, class, and religion—is your neighbor.
I have preached this parable over the years, and it always raises a host of questions and objections, many of which sound like the kind of questions that the law expert would have asked. No one has helped me answer these questions more than Jonathan Edwards,
In 1733 he preached a sermon entitled “The Duty of Charity to the Poor.” The word “neighbor” is found in the sermon nearly sixty times, and the discourse stands as one of the most thoroughgoing applications of the parable of the Good Samaritan to a body of believers that can be found anywhere. The heart of the sermon is a set of answers to a series of common objections Edwards always heard whenever he preached or spoke about the duty of sharing money and goods with the poor.
We don’t wait until we are in “extremity” before doing something about our condition, he argued, so why should we wait until our neighbor is literally starving before we help?
We ought to have such a spirit of love to him that we should be afflicted with him in his affliction.”
Another objection comes from people who say they “have nothing to spare” and that they barely have enough for their own needs. But one of the main lessons of the Good Samaritan parable is that real love entails risk and sacrifice. Edwards responds that when you say, “I can’t help anyone,” you usually mean, “I can’t help anyone without burdening myself, cutting in to how I live my life.” But, Edwards argues, that’s exactly what Biblical love requires.
In dealing with the objection that many of the poor do not have upright, moral characters, he counters that we did not either, and yet Christ put himself out for us.
When answering the objection that the poor have often contributed to their condition, Edwards is remarkably balanced yet insistently generous. He points out that it is possible some people simply do not have “a natural faculty to manage affairs to advantage.” In other words, some people persistently make sincere but very bad decisions about money and possessions.
But what if their economic plight is more directly the result of selfish, indolent, or violent behavior?
Christ found us in the same condition. Our spiritual bankruptcy was due to our own sin, yet he came and gave us what we needed.
Edwards says that we should not continue to aid a poor person if that person continues to act “viciously” and to persist in the same behavior. Yet Edwards has a final blow to strike. What about the rest of the person’s family? Sometimes, he says, we will need to give aid to families even when the parents act irresponsibly, for the children’s sake.
Your neighbor is anyone in need.
Jesus is the Great Samaritan to whom the Good Samaritan points. Before you can give this neighbor-love, you need to receive it. Only if you see that you have been saved graciously by someone who owes you the opposite will you go out into the world looking to help absolutely anyone in need. Once we receive this ultimate, radical neighbor-love through Jesus, we can start to be the neighbors that the Bible calls us to be.
David Platt, author of Radical, has written an important new book. So important, I believe, that rather than doing one book review, I’m going to review the content chapter by chapter. Note, all of Platt’s royalties from this book will go toward promoting the glory of Christ in all nations.
Each chapter concludes by offering some initial suggestions for practical requests you can pray in light of these issues, potential ways you might engage culture with the gospel, and biblical truths we must proclaim regarding every one of these issues. These suggestions will also direct you to a website www.counterculturebook.com/resources, where you can explore more specific steps you might take.
God used infertility to open our eyes to the orphan crisis around the world. And it is a crisis. Approximately 153 million children live as orphans, meaning they have lost at least one parent. Not included in that number, though, are the millions of effectively orphaned children who live in institutions or on the streets, in addition to vast multitudes who live as “social orphans,” meaning that even if a parent is alive, the children rarely, if ever, see that parent or experience life as part of a family.
True religion counters culture and results in sacrificially caring for people who can benefit you the least, who have the least to offer you in return for your kindness.
So what does this mean for followers of Christ in a world of 153 million orphans? Moreover, what shall we do in a world filled with 245 million widows, 115 million of whom live in poverty and suffer from social isolation and economic deprivation as a result of losing their husbands?
In a culture that increasingly views the orphan and the widow as liabilities, countercultural opportunities for Boaz-like generosity abound all around us.
That night, more than 160 families signed up (at his church), to help with foster care and adoption in our county. As a family of faith in Christ we said, “We want to make sure, as best we are able, that every child in our county has loving arms around him or her at night. We want to point every one of these children to the Father of the fatherless and Defender of the weak who cares for them.”
We realized that the majority of homes in that community had both orphans and widows living under the same roof. Needless to say, in a culture like this, the opportunities for ministry are many.
Christ compels us to counter culture by stepping in to care for orphans and widows when significant people have stepped out of their lives.
We must be finished and done with talk in our homes of “not wanting to adopt until we have children of our own” or of “wondering whether we could love a foster child as much as we love our own child.”
God is calling every child of his to look after the orphan and the widow in some way.
Teri is the Director of The Spoon River Pregnancy Resource Center located in Canton, IL.
Abortion Front Lines
When you think of Orlando, Florida, the thoughts that come to mind may be about warm weather, beaches and Mickey Mouse. Close to the last thing one would want to consider in the middle of the happiest place on earth would be an abortion clinic that does not only first trimester abortion procedures, but actually abortions up to 24 weeks of pregnancy. As someone who works in a pregnancy center, even I would rather not think about abortions happening that late into a pregnancy. The loss of life, the risks to the procedure, and the impact on life moving forward is unspeakable horror. This particular clinic has come up to me three times in conversation in the past two days.
First, I spent time with a friend who lives in Orlando and had visited this clinic. She was horrified by the surgical procedures being performed there and praying about involvement with a man who is there 6 days a week doing sidewalk evangelism. His name is John Barros. He is a part of RC Sproul’s church near Orlando. I then mentioned this clinic to my brother-in-law and sister as they attend a yearly conference in Orlando associated with the same church. They informed me they had heard this same man, John Barros , speak at the 2015 National Ligonier Conference and could send me the link. http://www.ligonier.org/learn/conferences/after-darkness-light-2015-national-conference/abortion-front-lines/? {Lee Webb interviews Dr. R.C. Sproul Jr. and John Barros about the importance of sidewalk counseling at abortion clinics.) After listening to the presentation twice, I feel a strong need to share a few thoughts.
John Barros has been given a tough, tough ministry assignment. Yes, he does see almost daily, women and couples who change their minds and choose life for their unborn child. But far and away more often, he is watching the destruction of countless lives every single day. The despair that has washed over me even thinking about the reality of this, is overwhelming. Pray for John Barros.
But secondly, listening to RC Sproul, Jr. share his experiences with this ministry I found much of what he said disturbing. Early on he makes the statement that — EVERYONE knows this is a baby. This situation is not due to a lack of education on fetal development. Everyone is fully aware they are murdering a baby. There are many of us in the prolife movement who do know enough about fetal development and Psalm 139 to believe this is a valuable life at the moment of conception. A life that God is knitting together in the womb with both a God-given purpose and a plan. But does EVERYONE believe that? Not hardly. It has become painfully obvious to me in the past few years, that much of the church today is not prolife — they are pro choice. The definition of when life begins is extremely controversial. Women who actually admit they are carrying a baby and use the word BABY are often NOT able to terminate the pregnancy.
Secondly, he calls abortion a great evil. I do not disagree with that statement at all. However, it is not greater than any other sin. Why do CHRISTIANS not talk about the fact they have had an abortion in their past? Because they fear being told just that — their abortion is one of the biggest sins anyone could commit. I do not see this supported in scripture. I think MAN likes to believe there is a top 10 worst sins. Then I am not as bad as you because I never did….fill in the blank. Delusional thinking.
Mr. Sproul also talks about a person covering their shame or eliminating their shame by having an abortion. The bottom line reason for an abortion is NOT shame it is self–centeredness.
Lastly, towards the end of the presentation. RC Sproul, Jr. discusses a young man that he spoke to during a visit to that abortion clinic. How that young man saw the abortion as a solution to his dilemma. And if he could just get his girlfriend through the procedure life would go on. Mr. Sproul went on to say that the young man would be filled with horror afterward at the reality of what just happened, but the horror would fade until he eventually forgot the experience entirely. It would not even cross his mind until the day he died. And then it would come back. The young man would remember what he had done.
I have no idea where Mr. Sproul got that impression, but I can tell you in 17 years of working in prolife ministries, I have NEVER met one person male or female who was able to forget their abortion experience. It often becomes something that is quite haunting. Statements are often made like, “I wish I could forget….or it was the worst day of my life….or if I had known what it would be like, I would never have done it.” It is a defining moment in anyone’s life. The reality is I have never met a person in 17 years who didn’t say “that experience changed my life forever. I walked out of that clinic a different person.” There are books written about post abortion trauma. There are prisons filled with inmates, both male and female who have an abortion in their past. Many of them will attest it was a part of their downward spiral.
While I very much admire John Barros for his commitment and perseverance in sidewalk evangelism at the Orlando abortion clinic, I honestly feel RC Sproul, Jr. was a huge deterrent to a productive, factual, compassionate conversation on this topic.
Chapter 3: Modern Holocaust: The Gospel and Abortion
Counter Culture: A Compassionate Call to Counter Culture in a World of Poverty, Same-Sex Marriage, Racism, Sex Slavery, Immigration, Abortion, Persecution, Orphans and Pornography by David Platt.
David Platt, author of Radical, has written an important new book. So important, I believe, that rather than doing one book review, I’m going to review the content chapter by chapter. Note, all of Platt’s royalties from this book will go toward promoting the glory of Christ in all nations.
Each chapter concludes by offering some initial suggestions for practical requests you can pray in light of these issues, potential ways you might engage culture with the gospel, and biblical truths we must proclaim regarding every one of these issues. These suggestions will also direct you to a website http://www.counterculturebook.com/resources, where you can explore more specific steps you might take.
This week we look at Chapter 3: Modern Holocaust: The Gospel and Abortion.
• For of all the pressing social issues addressed in this book, abortion poses the most clear and present danger to the most people on a daily basis.
• Across the world, over forty-two million abortions occur every year.
• The worldwide practice of abortion is why I do not believe it is anywhere close to an overstatement to call abortion a modern holocaust.
• Conservative estimates reveal that approximately one-third of American women have had (or will have) an abortion at some point in their lives.
• God the Creator alone has the right to determine when someone lives and dies, and abortion flies directly in the face of his authority.
• Many people say, “Abortion is such a complex issue, and there just aren’t any easy answers.” But if what is in the womb is a person, then even if someone is proabortion or pro-choice for any number of reasons, all of their reasoning falls apart.
• Scripture is clear: that womb contains a person being formed in the image of God.
• An estimated 92 percent of all women who receive a prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome choose to terminate their pregnancies.
• Would we murder a child outside the womb because he or she was conceived by rape? Of course we wouldn’t. Then why would we murder a child inside the womb?
• Abortion is an affront to God’s authority as Creator, an assault on God’s work in creation, and an attack on God’s relationship with the unborn. Once we realize the severity of abortion before God, the implications of the gospel for abortion become clear.
• This includes our current president, a man whom I respect deeply and pray for regularly but who is proactively and aggressively working to keep the murder of innocent children legal.
• If you are a Christian, I plead for you to step out of a muddled middle road that says, “I may not choose abortion, but I don’t think we should take away others’ right to choose it,” and to realize how inconceivable it is for us to stay silent while millions of children—individuals made in the image of God—are dismembered and destroyed around us in the world. Such thinking is not enlightened tolerance; it is sinful indifference. Moral and political neutrality here is not an option for us.
• If we believe the gospel, then we must speak out against the injustice of abortion.
• To anyone and everyone who has ever aborted a child, supported abortion, encouraged abortion, performed abortion, permitted abortion, or done nothing about abortion, may the following realities lodge deep within your soul. He forgives entirely, he heals deeply, and he restores completely.
Next week we’ll look at Chapter 4: The Lonely in Families: The Gospel and Orphans and Widows. Won’t you read along with us?
What is Your Greatest Fear? Marshall Segal of Desiring God writes “But the Bible brings the good news that if we truly knew the depths of our desperation in sin and the heights of God’s delivering love for us through the cross, we’d never have to be afraid of anything. That is a solid, secure place to stand when your circumstances feel anything but safe.”
Can We Really Be Free From our Excessive Fears? Jon Bloom of Desiring God writes “Living free from our excessive fear is not only possible for you; it’s available to you. All it requires is faith. And it doesn’t require heroic faith. It requires only a child’s faith. All you need to do, according to Jesus, is, “do not fear, only believe” (Mark 5:36).
Mindful of Our Busyness: Notes on Another Epidemic (and Its Relief). David Zahl writes “We are hearing more and more about the busyness epidemic, and I’m glad of that. If only the root issue could be fixed by analyzing or understanding it deeply enough! Alas, the most effective means of relief right now seems to have little if anything to do with information or even self-knowledge. Instead it has to do with finding the space/time to stop and just be.”
Lazy Busy. Tony Reinke of Desiring God writes “The most common species of slothfulness is “lazy busy” — a full schedule endured in a spiritual haze, begrudging interruptions, resenting needy people, driven by a craving for the next comfort. It is epidemic in our day.”
What is a Kind Husband? Using Boaz as an example, Douglas Wilson provides five characteristics of a kind husband.
Too Busy to Lead Family Worship? Don Whitney writes “You may know of no one as busy or as burdened as yourself, but can you honestly say you have more responsibilities than Charles Spurgeon? Despite his innumerable and important responsibilities, Spurgeon made the privileges and delights of family worship a priority. How about you?
Spiritual Joy vs. Worldly Joy. David Murray uses the writings of the Puritan Thomas Watson to outline eight important differences between Christian joy and the joy of the world.
In Bondage to Pornography. Carl Trueman writes “The ethics, and increasingly the laws, surrounding sexual behavior are coming to rest exclusively on the idea of consent”
Parenting Well in a Digital World. Tim Challies offers some tips on parenting well. He looks at 3 things you need to put off or reject, and 3 things you need to put on or embrace. Watch Tim’s message “Purity in a Digital Age” from the recent Ligonier National Conference.
Don’t Follow Your Heart. Jon Bloom of Desiring God writes “Our hearts were never designed to be followed, but to be led. Our hearts were never designed to be gods in whom we believe; they were designed to believe in God.”
What Makes a Man a Hero? R.C. Sproul Jr. writes “In our day you become a hero by becoming the best in your field. The high virtues of the Christian hero, by contrast, have precious little to do with accomplishment.
“And such were some of you.” Jonathan writes “This gospel testimony, true of all believers, is clearly seen in the life of Christopher Yuan. Christopher lived as a promiscuous gay man until he met Jesus in prison, where he was serving time for dealing drugs. Listen to the story of God’s great mercy in his life and be encouraged by God’s amazing grace.”
Should I Attend the Wedding of a Gay Friend or Family Member? Denny Burke writes “…attendance at a wedding is not like attending a concert, where attendance suggests nothing about your own views on the proceedings. A wedding is a public recognition of a union, and those in attendance are there to help celebrate and add their assent to the union.”
10 Things You Shouldn’t Say to a Pastor Right After the Sermon. Thom Rainer writes “Pastors often take 10 to 20 hours to prepare a sermon. They pray for God to speak through them. They preach with conviction and fervency. And then they hear one of these sentences.”
9 Marks of an Unhealthy Church. Kevin DeYoung writes “Here are nine marks that your church–even one that believes the Bible, preaches the gospel, and embraces good ecclesiology–may be unhealthy.”
God Doesn’t Want Matt Chandler to be Your Pastor. Stephen Altrogge writes “But God doesn’t want Matt Chandler to be your pastor (unless you happen to be in his church). God has placed your pastor in your church to care specifically for you. When your pastor is preparing his sermon, he’s preparing it for you, and God is specifically empowering him to prepare a sermon for you.”
6 Reasons Why Sexual Predators Target Churches. Tim Challies writes “It is terrible but true—sexual predators target churches. In the mind of a predator, a church offers a compelling target and, too often, an easy target. I recently worked my way through On Guard by Deepak Reju and learned that there are at least 6 reasons why sexual predators specifically target churches.”
An Evangelical Church ‘Comes Out’ for LGBT Rights. Heidi Halls writes “Pastor Stan Mitchell’s announcement that his evangelical GracePointe Church would fully affirm gay members met with a standing ovation from some, stunned silence from others, but everybody prayed together quietly at the end of it.”
Congratulating Wesleyan. Carl Trueman, after hearing that Wesleyan University had “taken the ever-expanding list of initials used to refer to sexual identities to new heights of absurdity or sensitivity, depending on one’s perspective. We are now apparently up to fifteen letters: LGBTTQQFAGPBDSM”, writes “Wesleyan University is not to be criticized but congratulated, at least in terms of the transparency and consistency of its vision. It is simply an honest and consistent example of the moralizing amorality of this present age.”
Franklin Graham: Obama, Holder guilty of ‘anti-Christian bias’. Franklin Graham states ““There is an anti-Christian bias that is now in our government, has permeated our government, that’s also permeated Washington but [also] at the state and local level.”
The Kids are not All Right. Daniel James Devine of World Magazine writes “Many children raised by gay parents are now young or middle-aged adults. Some say their upbringing was positive, but a growing number are beginning to speak out against what they feel is a dysfunctional parenting model.”
Florist Rejects Washington Attorney General’s Offer and Risks Everything. Denny Burk writes about Barronelle Stutzman, a 70-year old grandmother. She is a florist being sued by the state Attorney General for the state of Washington for refusing to participate in a gay wedding. The attorney general is trying to compel her to ignore her Christian faith and to participate in gay weddings. If she refuses, he is threatening the full coercive power of the state to force her to do it. She stands to lose everything—her home, her savings, her business, her livelihood—if she does not comply.
Making a New Argument for Marriage. In the new issue of ByFaith magazine is an interesting article, “Making A New Argument for Marriage” by Susan Fikse. Fikse writes “In his late-June dissent to the Supreme Court decision on the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), Justice Samuel Alito described the debate in this case as a battle between two views of marriage. As Alito describes, the real issue at stake is not expanding the definition of marriage to include same-sex couples, but redefining the very core of the institution.”
Wedding Costs. The average cost of a wedding excluding a honeymoon was $31,213 in 2014. Wow.
MUSIC:
FOX News Radio’s Tonya J. Powers Interviews Third Day. In this interview, Mac, David and Mark sit down with FOX News Radio’s Tonya J. Powers to talk about their new worship album “Lead Us Back: Songs of Worship,” which is the first Worship album they’ve released in 12 years.
Passion 2015 Live Album. Featuring some of this generation’s most acclaimed worship leaders – Chris Tomlin, Crowder, Matt Redman, Christy Nockels, Kristian Stanfill and Brett Younker – the new live Passion album Passion: Even So Come is set to release on March 17. The album was recorded in front of over 30,000 college students at three separate Passion gatherings in Atlanta and Houston. The standard edition will feature twelve songs, while the deluxe edition will feature eighteen songs, including two videos.
Anomaly Tour 2015. Are you going to see Lecrae and Andy Mineo in St. Louis. Check out this short tour promo video.
Five Books Christians Should Read on Islam. Aaron Armstrong offers these five books we need to read to give us a better idea of what Muslims actually believe, the questions they are really asking, and the objections they hold about Christianity.
Finding Truth. Tim Challies writes “Nancy Pearcey’s bestselling and award-winning book Total Truth made quite a mark on my life. It was, to my memory, the first book I had ever read on worldview, and its explanation of the way our world divides the sacred and the secular has not only stuck with me, but has helped me better understand and explain the culture around me.”
Pass Down the Truth. Check out this promotional video for the newly revised and updated Reformation Study Bible.
Shepherds’ Conference 2015. The video from all of the messages from the recent Shepherds’ Conference Inerrancy Summit, hosted by John MacArthur, are now available.
Liberate 2015 Conference Messages. You can watch all of the conference messages, featuring Tullian Tchividjian, Scotty Smith, Paul Tripp, Steve Brown and more.
Andy Crouch: The Return of Shame. Check out this article from the author of Culture Making: Recovering Our Creative Calling. See our review of the book here.
7 Women by Eric Metaxas. One of my favorite authors follows up his 7 Men book with 7 Women: And Their Secret of Their Greatness, to be published September 8.
Living Well in a Digital World. Tim Challies writes “Zondervan has just released a second edition of my book The Next Story and it comes complete with a few updates, an added chapter, and a new subtitle: Faith, Friends, Family, and the Digital World. It covers some of this material, plus a whole lot more.”
Beauty for Ashes. Tim Challies looks at Iain Murray’s new biography of Amy Carmichael. I’m reading the book now and will run a review soon.
New Book from Ashley Cleveland. Ashley, one of the best and most honest singer/songwriters you are going to find, is working on her second book. She writes that this one on loss—and the unexpected life that fills the open spaces. You can find our review of her first book Little Black Sheep, here (just page down until you find it).
Cage-Stage Calvinism. R.C. Sproul writes “Cage-stage Calvinists are identifiable by their insistence on turning every discussion into an argument for limited atonement or for making it their personal mission to ensure everyone they know hears—often quite loudly—the truths of divine election.”
A Brief Defense of Infant Baptism. Kevin DeYoung writes “No matter where you fall on this issue, I encourage you think through the topic with an open Bible and some good resources in hand.”
The Glorious Doctrine of Irresistible Grace. Keith Mathison writes “When we come to a full understanding of how serious our situation is as fallen human beings, our perspective on these doctrines changes dramatically.”
5 Ways the Final Judgment Frees Us to Engage Culture. David Burnette challenges us to consider five different ways the doctrine of God’s final judgment should free us as we face a shifting and increasingly hostile culture.
The Cost of Compromise. John MacArthur writes “Scripture is clear about how we are to respond when the very foundations of the Christian faith are under attack: our duty is to contend, not compromise.”
The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert by Rosaria Champagne Butterfield. Crown & Covenant Publications. 128 pages. 2012. Audiobook read by Rosaria Champagne Butterfield ****
I first started hearing the name Rosaria Butterfield a few months ago, and then got to hear her tell her story last month at the 2015 Ligonier National Conference. You can watch her conference message “Repentance & Renewal” here.
This is not your typical Christian testimony/autobiography. For one, it is very well written. Rosaria is a very intelligent and opinionated individual, earning a PhD at Ohio State and then serving as a tenured English professor at Syracuse University, where she taught courses in Women’s Studies, specializing in Queer Theory and was a popular conference speaker. She gives insights – often painful – about how gays and lesbians perceive evangelical Christians. Read the entire book review on the blog….
Reading Together Week 2
Counter Culture: A Compassionate Call to Counter Culture in a World of Poverty, Same-Sex Marriage, Racism, Sex Slavery, Immigration, Abortion, Persecution, Orphans and Pornography by David Platt.
David Platt, author of Radical, has written an important new book. So important, I believe, that rather than doing one book review, I’m going to review the content chapter by chapter. Note, all of Platt’s royalties from this book will go toward promoting the glory of Christ in all nations.
Each chapter concludes by offering some initial suggestions for practical requests you can pray in light of these issues, potential ways you might engage culture with the gospel, and biblical truths we must proclaim regarding every one of these issues. These suggestions will also direct you to a website www.counterculturebook.com/resources, where you can explore more specific steps you might take.
This is Third Day’s fourth Offerings album, comprised of three worship music albums and Christmas Offerings, released in 2006. While the previous Offerings albums were a mixture of live tracks, new songs and covers, the standard release contains all new worship music written specifically for this album (the Deluxe edition contains at least one cover).
One of my favorite songs of the year – “Soul on Fire” featuring All Sons and Daughters – is the first single. Third Day is an excellent live band that we have seen in concert a few times. I purchased the Deluxe edition of Lead Us Back, which features three additional new songs and eight songs, including “Soul on Fire” recorded in concert, for a total of 22 songs, well worth the extra few dollars.
Any discussion of a Third Day album starts with the powerful voice of lead singer Mac Powell, and his voice is in top shape on this release. The album also features excellent backing vocals from guest artists including not only All Sons and Daughters, but also Michael Tait (formerly of DC Talk and now the lead singer of the Newsboys), Michael W. Smith, Natalie Grant, David Crowder, Sarah MacIntosh, Daniel Bashta and others.
Here are a few comments about and lyrics from each of the new songs: Spirit– a song that could be used as a call to worship in church, with Powell and background singers pleading for the leading of the Holy Spirit.
Oh, Lord, fill us with Your Spirit Guide us by Your presence How we need You, God
Soul on Fire – the first single, co-written with Matt Maher, is an upbeat catchy song that you’ll have stuck in your mind, featuring the vocals of All Sons and Daughters. The song had its origins with South African worship leader/songwriter Brenton Brown who allowed the band to change the arrangement and add a verse. The band performed a great version of the song live on Fox and Friends on March 7.
God, I’m running for Your heart I’m running for Your heart Till I am a soul on fire Lord, I’m longing for Your ways I’m waiting for the day When I am a soul on fire Till I am a soul on fire
Your Words – a song about God’s Word that features female worship artist Harvest Parker and begins with a hammered dulcimer.
Let me hear Your words Above all other voices Above all the distractions in this world
Your words give us life that’s never ending Your words bring us love that never fails Everything else will fade away But what will remain Are Your words
Our Deliverer – one of the songs that was released early if you pre-ordered the album. The song looks forward to the second coming of Christ.
Our Deliverer is coming With salvation in His wings Our Deliverer is coming Here to set His people free Our Deliverer is coming Coming back for you and me Our Deliverer is coming
He is Alive – this would be an excellent song for churches to sing this Easter:
He is alive Death is defeated Sin has retreated From the power of the Son And He is alive The enemy is faded The battle still rages But the war has been won
In Jesus’ Name – features vocals from Michael W. Smith, Natalie Grant and Michael Tait.
Name above all names Savior and our Lord Every knee will bow And every tongue confess No other name is given By which we can be saved Let us find our life and love In Jesus name
Lead Us Back – a short song that contains the following lyrics:
Lead us back where we belong Call us as Your very own Lead us back Safe into to Your arms
Maker – an easy-going acoustic song about the creator of all things.
Maker, there is none like You Savior, no one else will do Lord, there is no other God Lord, there is no other God Maker, there is none like You
Victorious – another of the songs that was released early if you pre-ordered the album. A piano driven song that will sound great in worship services.
Victorious, You reign victorious Over sin, over death, over all, over us Victorious, You reign victorious In Your mighty name we trust Let all proclaim You reign victorious You reign victorious
I Know You Can – a song about trusting completing in our sovereign God that has a modern country sound to it.
Give me the words to say Bring me the strength to stand Take all the doubt away Jesus, I know You can For if I’m to follow You It’s only by Your hand Help me to make it through Jesus, I know You can
Father of Lights – this song has very much a Crowder feel to it.
Father of truth, Father of grace Be with us now fill this place
The One I Love – available only on the Deluxe edition. An acoustic guitar driven song.
Oh, you of little faith Oh, how quickly and how often you have forgotten Oh, you of little faith Aren’t you tired of all the wars and battles you have fought in And when all your world is gone And you cannot sing your song I will help you carry on The one I love
Praise the Invisible – a cover of the Daniel Bashta song available only on the Deluxe edition.
Praise the Invisible, praise the Immortal One Praise God Incarnate, praise Father, Spirit, Son For He is God, for He is holy For He holds the keys to the grave And forever He will reign
Arise – the closing song is available only on the Deluxe edition.
Arise O God, lift up Your hand Bring freedom and forgiveness Arise O God, Help us to stand For mercy and for justice
I’m a long-time Third Day fan. I look forward to hearing these songs on the radio and hopefully in concert.
Book Review
The Evangelistic Zeal of George Whitefield by Steven Lawson. Reformation Trust Publishing. 178 pages. 2013 ****
I’ve enjoyed reading a few of the books in the Long Line of Godly Men series – books on Charles Spurgeon, Martin Luther, John Owen and now George Whitefield. I look forward to reading Steven Lawson’s books on John Calvin and Jonathan Edwards in the future. About the series, the series editor Lawson writes:
“This Long Line of Godly Men Profile series highlights key figures in the age-long procession of sovereign-grace men. The purpose of this series is to explore how these figures used their God-given gifts and abilities to impact their times and further the kingdom of heaven.”
This book focuses on the great English evangelist George Whitefield. Lawson writes: “In the eighteenth century, a day plagued by lifeless orthodoxy, Whitefield burst onto the scene with power and passion. In a day marked by great spiritual decline, Whitefield preached with a supernatural unction and intense boldness that became the primary catalyst in ushering in two major revivals simultaneously, one in the British Isles and the other in the American colonies.”
Lawson indicates that if he could be anyone in church history it would be Whitefield, because of his consuming evangelistic zeal. Whitefield has instilled within him a passion for preaching.
Lawson begins with a brief biography of Whitefield. A few highlights of which are:
Whitefield was the force behind the British Evangelical movement and the First Great Awakening. Not since the first-century missionary journeys of the Apostle Paul had such evangelistic preaching been taken so directly to the masses of the world.
In his thirty-four years of ministry, Whitefield preached some eighteen thousand sermons, often to multiplied thousands. If informal messages are included, such as in private homes, this number easily increases to thirty thousand sermons, perhaps more. Three sermons a day were common; four were not uncommon. Conservative estimates are that he spoke a thousand times every year for more than thirty years. In America alone, it is estimated that eighty percent of the colonists heard him preach. This means Whitefield was seen by far more American settlers than was George Washington. Whitefield’s name was more widely recognized by colonial Americans than any living person’s except for those of British royalty. It is believed that Whitefield preached to more than ten million people over the course of his ministry, a staggering number.
Making seven demanding trips to America, Whitefield crossed the Atlantic Ocean thirteen times for the express purpose of preaching the gospel. He spent almost three years of his life on a ship en route to preach. In all, about eight years of his life were spent in America. He made fifteen trips to Scotland, two to Ireland, and one each to Gibraltar, Bermuda, and the Netherlands.
Near the end of Whitefield’s first year at Oxford, Charles Wesley (1707–1788), the future hymn writer, introduced him to a small group of students known as the “Oxford Holy Club.” Included in this group was Charles’ brother, John Wesley (1703–1791), and ten others who met to pursue religiously moral lives. Despite their rigid discipline in Bible reading, study, prayer, fasting, and service, not one of these young students was converted. So stringent was Whitefield in his self-righteous efforts to earn salvation that his severe discipline caused him to suffer a lifelong physical weakness.
At age twenty-one, Whitefield was regenerated by the Holy Spirit, and placed his faith in Christ.
The Wesleys, still unconverted, departed for the mission field in the American colony of Georgia, leaving Whitefield the leader of the Holy Club. With flaming zeal in his soul, he evangelized his fellow students and placed new believers into small-group Bible studies. This strict discipline in Bible study led many to label the members of the Holy Club with the derisive term “Methodists.”
Unexpectedly, correspondence came from John and Charles Wesley in Georgia, urging Whitefield to help in their new missionary work.
Whitefield at last arrived in Savannah, Georgia, on May 7, 1738, only to discover that John Wesley had left the colony under indictment by a grand jury. The mission work was in complete shambles. As Whitefield surveyed the scene, he saw a great number of orphans and felt compelled to build an orphanage.
Upon his return, Whitefield discovered the Wesleys had been converted and had assumed the leadership of this new, emerging movement known as Methodism.
Vicious pamphlets were circulated in opposition to them and rumors spread, smearing Whitefield’s name. Church doors were closed to him, forcing a bold new strategy. He would bypass church buildings altogether and preach in the open air. This first success in open-air preaching proved to be the turning point not only for Whitefield’s ministry but, in many ways, for evangelicalism in general.
During this one summer, it is estimated that in London and the surrounding counties Whitefield preached to as many as one million people. Astonishingly, this success occurred while Whitefield was but a mere twenty-four years old.
But at the very height of this ministry, Whitefield made a daring decision. Rather than ride this wave of popularity, he determined in August 1739 to board a ship and sail for America. This young evangelist was determined to enter the large cities of the colonies and bring this same evangelistic preaching and revivalist spirit to the New World.
After a two-month voyage, Whitefield landed at Lewes, Delaware, ready to launch a new preaching campaign. This evangelistic tour through the colonies is considered by many the greatest preaching campaign ever undertaken.
Benjamin Franklin was a close friend of Whitefield. Franklin set out to make Whitefield famous in the colonies. He printed ten editions of Whitefield’s Journals, and secured the assistance of eleven printers in making them bestsellers. During 1739–1741, more than half the books published by Franklin were by or about Whitefield.
Jonathan Edwards (1703–1758), the recognized leader of the first wave of the Great Awakening, invited Whitefield to Northampton, Massachusetts, where he preached four times in October 1740. This would be the only time that the leaders of this powerful movement would meet.
Not since New Testament times had the world witnessed such explosive energy and extensive outreach in evangelistic preaching.
Having left England at the height of his popularity, he returned a year later to dwindling support. This decline was due to a crisis created by John Wesley over Whitefield’s belief in the sovereignty of God in salvation. Before Whitefield’s return, Wesley had distributed a tract titled Free Grace, a bitter condemnation of the doctrines of grace aimed directly at his old friend. Whitefield responded by defending the biblical teaching of God’s election and predestination. However, the damage was done. The painful separation of these spiritual leaders resulted in a division that affected countless people.
En route, four-month-old John was overtaken by the cold and died. In strange providence, Whitefield’s son died in the very home in which George himself had been born, and as he confided, “laid in the church where I was baptized, first communicated, and first preached.”
Further difficulty came when Whitefield survived a well-orchestrated assassination plot in which he was attacked while in bed at night.
Sorrow came in 1768 when his wife, Elizabeth, unexpectedly died.
On September 16, 1769, Whitefield preached his final London sermon from John 10:27–28. Soon afterward, he sailed for America in what would be his last trip across the Atlantic.
Whitefield preached his last sermon in Exeter, New Hampshire, on September 29, 1770. It was a soul-searching exposition that would last two hours, and was titled “Examine Yourself,” from 2 Corinthians 13:5. On Sunday morning, September 30, 1770, at approximately six o’clock a.m., George Whitefield breathed his last and entered into the presence of Him whom he had so faithfully proclaimed. As per his instruction, Whitefield was buried under the next pulpit in which he was to preach. Appropriately, his body was laid in a subterranean crypt under the pulpit of the Old South Presbyterian Church. In London, John Wesley preached Whitefield’s memorial service at one of Whitefield’s churches, Tottenham Court Road Chapel.
I highlighted a number of passages in this short book and would like to share some of them with you below:
His unparalleled effectiveness as an evangelist cannot be grasped until one sees the depth of his close communion with the Lord.
He was consumed with a fervent desire to know God Himself, which ignited a contagious fire within his soul to lead others to a saving knowledge of Christ.
Whitefield was, as Lloyd-Jones identified, “a pietist, that is, one who saw practical personal devotion to the Father and the Son through the Spirit as always the Christian’s top priority.”
Whitefield’s spiritual devotion was established upon his immovable commitment to the Bible.
The Word of God became so all-consuming in Whitefield’s daily life that he confessed to having little time to read anything else: “I got more true knowledge from reading the Book of God in one month, than I could ever have acquired from all the writings of men.”
As Whitefield lived for Christ, the Word of God became the ruling authority over his life.
Moreover, Whitefield was devoted to God in earnest prayer. Whitefield understood that prayer was a necessary spiritual discipline for the grounding and growth of his soul.
Further, Whitefield’s devotion meant he maintained a singular focus upon Jesus Christ.
The magnifying lens through which Whitefield saw Christ was Scripture. Above all, Whitefield’s desire was to know Jesus Christ. In addition, Whitefield’s piety was evidenced in his remarkable humility. Whitefield never lost sight of the fact that he was a wretched sinner saved by grace.
This gifted preacher would not allow a Christian institution to be named after him. The more he looked upon Christ’s holiness, the more he became aware of his own sin. He was willing to concede the error of his ways whenever he discovered he was wrong.
But perhaps the supreme example of Whitefield’s humility concerned his theological differences and strained relationships with the Wesley brothers. For the sake of peace, he chose to resign his leadership role in the Methodist movement, which he had helped to start.
Finally, Whitefield’s godliness was witnessed in his constant pursuit of personal holiness.
Moral perfection, he contended, was not ultimately attainable until he entered the heavenly realm. This understanding was diametrically opposed to the perfectionism taught by the Wesleys, who asserted that a believer could cease sinning. Whitefield countered that perfect holiness could never be fully realized upon this earth.
George Whitefield was arguably the most prolific evangelist since the time of the Apostles. Yet, at the same time, he was also a staunch Calvinist. Undergirding his passionate gospel preaching was an unwavering belief in God’s sovereignty in man’s salvation.
Some argue that these two realities—sovereign grace and evangelistic zeal—cannot co-exist. But nothing could be further from the truth. They meet perfectly in Scripture, and they existed side-by-side in Whitefield’s ministry.
“I embrace the Calvinistic scheme, not because of Calvin, but Jesus Christ has taught it to me,” Whitefield said.
Whitefield drank deeply from the well of the doctrines of grace, and it proved to be the spring of all he believed and preached. Each tenet of Calvinism shaped and molded him into a zealous evangelist.
Whitefield held to the biblical doctrine of total depravity. This is the scriptural teaching that the original sin of Adam was imputed to the entire human race, condemning all subsequent generations. Likewise, the sin nature of Adam was transmitted to every person at the moment of their conception.
Every faculty of every person—mind, affections, and will—is fatally plagued by sin. The entire fallen race cannot, by its own moral efforts, save itself. Neither does any sinful creature have faith to believe in Christ. Whitefield believed that man is utterly dead in sin, and his will is held captive in bondage.
Whitefield believed that man rejects the teachings of original sin and total depravity due to inherent pride.
Whitefield’s understanding of total depravity indelibly marked his preaching. Virtually every sermon Whitefield preached pointed man to his desperate condition in sin.
Whitefield likewise embraced the biblical doctrine of sovereign election. He maintained that before time began, God the Father freely chose those whom He would save out of the whole of the fallen race. These chosen ones were elected not on the basis of anything good foreseen in them, and certainly not for any foreseen faith in Christ. God chose to set His sovereign love upon certain individuals for reasons known only to Himself.
Whitefield firmly held to the Reformed position on predestination. In this biblical view, from all eternity God decrees some to election and intervenes in their lives to work regeneration and faith by a divine act of grace, bringing them all to Himself in eternity future.
Whitefield was also convinced that the doctrine of election has great converting power.
God withholds from the non-elect this work of saving grace, passing them by and leaving them to themselves, a biblical truth known as reprobation.
Whitefield also championed the doctrine of definite atonement, also known as particular redemption.
This is the teaching that the Father’s election, the Son’s redemption, and the Spirit’s application of salvation are all coextensive; that God planned to save a certain people, His sheep…and sent His Son explicitly to achieve this goal.” God the Father designed the death of the Lord Jesus Christ with the specific purpose of saving His elect.
Definite atonement was an essential element in Whitefield’s explanation of the gospel.
Whitefield further preached that all those chosen by the Father and redeemed by the Son would be regenerated by the Holy Spirit. The saving work of Christ on the cross is applied by the effectual call of the Holy Spirit. He held that the third person of the Trinity would convict the elect sinner, efficaciously draw him to Christ, and grant the gifts of true repentance and faith.
Whitefield believed that regeneration is monergistic, an exclusive work of God in the human heart that both precedes and produces saving faith.
Finally, Whitefield upheld the biblical doctrine of the perseverance of the saints. Whitefield was convinced that God brings all His chosen ones to future glory. Those whom God elects and brings to salvation will be preserved by grace, both in time and eternity. Those whom God saves, He saves forever. They will never fall away. They will never perish. This doctrine brought great joy to Whitefield throughout his Christian life and ministry.
The focus of his extraordinary ministry was the simple proclamation of the gospel and the appeal to the unconverted to enter through the narrow gate.
He purposed not to be with anyone for more than fifteen minutes without confronting them with the claims of Christ.
Whitefield was convinced that any presentation of the gospel must begin by exposing the listener’s sin and his dire need for salvation.
Only when confronted with their sinfulness, Whitefield insisted, would unbelievers seek to embrace Christ as their Savior and Lord.
Whitefield’s sermons were filled with vivid warnings of the horrific dangers of remaining in a state of sin.
Whitefield understood that gospel preaching must include the threat of hell, which is intended to drive men to flee to Christ and escape His terrors.
Whitefield next proceeded to the saving death of the Lord Jesus Christ. The message of sin is dark, but by it the truth of salvation through the cross shines that much brighter.
Whitefield set before sinners Christ’s death and His atoning blood as the only means of salvation.
Whitefield preached best, he perceived, when he proclaimed the glories of the cross.
Whitefield, moreover, was continually expounding upon the necessity of regeneration, as a “great theme” in his preaching, according to Lloyd-Jones.
At the heart of Whitefield’s preaching was this doctrine of the new birth. Regeneration had not been a central focus for the Reformers, but Whitefield made it a dominant emphasis in his preaching. Standing behind the truth on regeneration is the doctrine of election.
Whitefield pressed the hearts of his listeners for an immediate response. It was not enough for him that people knew the truth of the gospel. They must fully commit themselves to Jesus Christ.
It could be argued that Whitefield’s favorite word in preaching was the word come. He repeatedly urged his listeners to come to Christ by faith.
It is quite clear that Whitefield believed an invitation must be offered to the lost to come to Christ. Still, he did not practice an “altar call,” nor did he encourage emotional excitement among his congregation.
Whitefield further impressed upon his listeners the certain reality of eternity that lay before them.
In nearly every sermon, Whitefield affirmed that the day of eternity was close at hand.
With graphic words and an arresting voice, Whitefield had the keen ability to dramatically represent the horrors of hell. His vivid language in describing the lake of fire caused people to feel as if they might drop into the bottomless pit at any moment.
The evangelistic zeal of George Whitefield flowed out of his love for the glorious gospel of grace. It was this supreme love and devotion that drove him to pursue the lost, expose sin, exalt the cross, summon the will, and point to eternity.
Arnold Dallimore wrote, “His ministry presents an unparalleled example of declaring the sovereignty of God combined with the free offer of salvation to all who would believe on Christ.”
Whitefield provides the quintessential example of one who held the doctrines of grace in one hand and the free offer of the gospel in the other hand.
In a day when pulpit delivery had degenerated into dry ritual, involving nothing more than a monotone reading of a sermon manuscript, Whitefield burst onto the scene with intense preaching.
Whitefield’s passion arose from the depth of his biblical convictions. Whenever he stood behind an open Bible, Whitefield was thoroughly convinced that he was delivering divine truth.
Whitefield so elevated the importance of preaching that he stated, “May I die preaching.” Again, “I hope yet to die in the pulpit, or soon after I come out of it.” In God’s providence, Whitefield realized this very desire. On a balcony not far from his deathbed, he preached his last sermon to a large crowd that had filled the street in front of the parsonage. He died within hours of extending the invitation for all to embrace Christ.
Whitefield’s soul was ignited with fiery zeal in his preaching. Whitefield’s intense passion was kindled by his own deepening love for God and Jesus Christ, which in turn ignited his compassion for lost sinners.
Whitefield’s affection for God was stoked by reflection upon the greatness of His character. Moreover, his heart of love was fueled by his personal communion with Jesus Christ. This intimate knowledge of Christ was the consistent theme that filled his soul and increased his affections.
Whitefield often wept as he preached. Deep compassion for unbelievers moved Whitefield in his preaching.
An understanding of Whitefield’s ministry must recognize his relentless pursuit of the lost.
Whitefield is remembered as one of the first to preach to African slaves in the colonies.
Whitefield believed God had sovereignly called him to preach the gospel.
The relentless drive of Whitefield’s herculean effort was fueled by power from on high. Consider the unparalleled pace of Whitefield’s itinerant ministry.
He founded three churches and one school, and founded and assumed responsibility for an orphanage in Savannah, Georgia, often preaching five or six times a day, for as much as forty hours a week.
The only way Whitefield could endure all he did, travel as much as he did, preach as much as he did, and exert the energy that he did, was through the empowerment of the Holy Spirit.
Whitefield’s deep love for the souls of men and women did not originate in himself. It was God who gave him an uncommon love for those to whom he preached.
Time and again, Whitefield attributed his effectiveness, influence, and scope in ministry to the quickening effect of the Holy Spirit.
The Spirit also gave Whitefield resilience in the face of opposition to the message he preached.
Whitefield was inwardly consoled in the midst of many demanding circumstances in his life and ministry.
At times, Whitefield felt abandoned by the Lord. It was then that the Lord came in great power to shore up his weakness.
As he faced these many trials in his life and ministry—the conflict with the Wesleys, the financial burden of the Bethesda Orphanage, the long ocean voyages, the premature death of his newborn son, the loss of his wife, and the growing hecklers in the crowd—this valiant soldier of the cross found supernatural solace in the Lord, mediated by the Holy Spirit.
Whitefield understood that the effects of his preaching were sovereignly determined by God. His responsibility was to deliver the message and leave the results entirely with God.
The same Spirit who indwelled Whitefield has taken up His royal residence within the heart of every believer in Christ. The same Spirit who called Whitefield from obscurity to worldwide influence has placed the same call upon every Christian’s heart to bear gospel witness. The same Spirit who empowered Whitefield in his numerous endeavors will propel every follower of Christ to service in His name. The same Spirit who energized Whitefield will give divine energy and supernatural power today to accomplish all He wills.
Among his many qualities worth emulating, we see the primacy of the gospel in his preaching. He lived to proclaim the saving message of Jesus Christ.
Lawson concludes by writing:
“May the Lord raise up a new generation of zealous evangelists who will never lose sight of the need to preach the gospel with urgency and passion.”
David Platt, author of Radical, has written an important new book. So important, I believe, that rather than doing one book review, I’m going to review the content chapter by chapter. Here’s our first installment, covering the material through chapter 1 of the book. Note, all of Platt’s royalties from this book will go toward promoting the glory of Christ in all nations.
Each chapter concludes by offering some initial suggestions for practical requests you can pray in light of these issues, potential ways you might engage culture with the gospel, and biblical truths we must proclaim regarding every one of these issues. These suggestions will also direct you to a website (CounterCultureBook.com) where you can explore more specific steps you might take.
Platt starts out by talking about the Gospel. If someone asked you to clearly describe the Gospel would you be able to do it? Platt writes: “The good news that the just and gracious Creator of the universe has looked upon hopelessly sinful men and women and has sent his Son, Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, to bear his wrath against sin on the cross and to show his power over sin in the resurrection, so that everyone who turns from their sin and themselves and trusts in Jesus as Savior and Lord will be reconciled to God forever.
In the Introduction, Platt writes:
On popular issues like poverty and slavery, where Christians are likely to be applauded for our social action, we are quick to stand up and speak out. Yet on controversial issues like homosexuality and abortion, where Christians are likely to be criticized for our involvement, we are content to sit down and stay quiet. It’s as if we’ve decided to pick and choose which social issues we’ll contest and which we’ll concede. And our picking and choosing normally revolves around what is most comfortable—and least costly—for us in our culture.
And what if Christ’s call in our lives is not to comfort in our culture? What if Christ in us actually compels us to counter our culture? Not to quietly sit and watch evolving cultural trends and not to subtly shift our views amid changing cultural tides, but to courageously share and show our convictions through what we say and how we live, even (or especially) when these convictions contradict the popular positions of our day.
Chapter 1: The Greatest Offense: The Gospel and Culture
Platt writes:
The gospel is the lifeblood of Christianity, and it provides the foundation for countering culture. For when we truly believe the gospel, we begin to realize that the gospel not only compels Christians to confront social issues in the culture around us. The gospel actually creates confrontation with the culture around—and within—us.
One of the core truths of the gospel is that God will judge every person, and he will be just. This puts us in a position where we desperately need his grace.
Tell any modern person that there is a God who sustains, owns, defines, rules, and one day will judge him or her, and that person will balk in offense.
Do you see the role reversal here? It all begins when the command of God is reduced to questions about God. Is God really holy? Does he really know what is right? Is God really good? Does he really want what is best for me? Amid such questions, man and woman subtly assert themselves not as the ones to be judged by God but as the ones who sit in judgment of him.
Godless worldviews thus leave us with a hopeless subjectivity concerning good and evil that is wholly dependent on social constructs. Whatever a culture deems right is right, and whatever a culture deems wrong is wrong. This is precisely the worldview that prevails in American culture today, where rapid shifts in the moral landscape clearly communicate that we no longer believe certain things are inherently right or wrong. Instead, rightness and wrongness is determined by social developments around us.
For even as the gospel grounds the definition of good and evil in the character of God, it also claims that evil is not limited to certain types of sin and select groups of sinners. Evil is unfortunately inherent in all of us and therefore unavoidably a part of any culture we create.
The essence of what the Bible calls sin is the exaltation of self. God has designed us to put him first in our lives, others next, and ourselves last. Yet sin reverses that order: we put ourselves first, others next (many times in an attempt to use them for ourselves), and God somewhere (if anywhere) in the distant background. We turn from worshiping God to worshiping self.
When you put all these truths in the gospel together, you realize that the most offensive and countercultural claim in Christianity is not what Christians believe about homosexuality or abortion, marriage or religious liberty. Instead, the most offensive claim in Christianity is that God is the Creator, Owner, and Judge of every person on the planet. Every one of us stands before him guilty of sin, and the only way to be reconciled to him is through faith in Jesus, the crucified Savior and risen King. All who trust in his love will experience everlasting life while all who turn from his lordship will suffer everlasting death.
I envision three categories of readers for this book. The first category includes readers who don’t believe the gospel. You don’t currently profess to be a Christian, yet for any number of reasons you’re reading this book.
The second category of reader is similar to the first in that you don’t believe the gospel. The difference, however, is that you currently profess to be a Christian.
The final category of reader includes those who do believe the gospel. I assume this comprises many of those reading this book, and this is certainly the main audience for whom I am writing.
In addressing each of these issues, I want to call Christians to conviction. Ultimately, may it be said of us that we not only held firm to the gospel, but that we spoke clearly with the gospel to the most pressing issues of our day. In addition to calling us to conviction, I want to call us to compassion. Based upon his love, I want to call us to action.
The goal of this book is not information about the gospel and social issues; it is application of the gospel to social issues.
Next week we’ll look at Chapter 2: Where Rich and Poor Collide: The Gospel and Poverty. I recommend that you purchase this book and read along with us.
Recommended Resource
Reformation Study Bible – R.C. Sproul, General Editor
In April 1995 I first saw the New Geneva Study Bible (later renamed The Reformation Study Bible) at the book table. We were in Springfield to hear Dr. John Gerstner (R.C. Sproul’s mentor), speak near the end of his life (he would die less than a year later on March 24, 1996). I had my copy on order so couldn’t purchase a copy that day.
I am so excited that The Reformation Study Bible has been thoroughly revised and carefully crafted under the editorial leadership of R.C. Sproul and the contributions of 75 distinguished theologians and pastors from around the world. It was released at the recent 2015 Ligonier National Conference, and will be available publicly this month.
Over 1.1 million words of new, expanded, or revised commentary represent 40% more content faithfully presented to emphasize the need for the grace of God to lead out of darkness and into the light of Scripture.
Trustworthy Scholars & Commentary
New theological notes from general editor, R.C. Sproul
Commentary from 75 faithful theologians from around the world
New topical articles to enrich additional study of Scripture
Thoroughly Revised & Expanded Study Aids
Over 1.1 million words of verse-by-verse and topical explanations
Over 20,000 new, revised, or expanded study notes
Historical creeds and confessions from 2,000 years of church history
New Study Tools & Visual Helps
Includes over $400 of digital resources (eBooks, videos) from Ligonier Ministries and 6 months of Tabletalk Magazine
16 pages of high-resolution full color maps at back of Bible
Embedded maps provide quick references as you read
Concordance, table of weights and measures, and more
I was told at the conference that the e-book edition of The Reformation Study Bible would be released (for the first time) in about a month from now, and that when you buy the physical copy you will also receive the e-book version.
There are many excellent study Bibles available – I used the ESV Study Bible, Gospel Transformation Study Bible, MacArthur Study Bible for example. However, once the updated Reformation Study Bible is released in e-book format, it will be the Bible I’ll use each day.
The Matheny Manifesto: A Young Manager’s Old School Views on Success in Sports and Life by Mike Matheny and Jerry B. Jenkins. Crown Archetype. 226 pages. 
