Godly People Say Goodbye (Acts 20:18-35)

Christians living rightly

are consistently saying goodbye.

Download the sermon from Acts 20:18-35

Church Membership Matters

Church Membership Matters because our church must grasp hold of each other in responsibility, accountability, and love.

Part II of the series, "Church Matters"

Download the teaching: Church Membership Matters

Preaching Matters

Biblical preaching matters because our church needs to hear directly from God and God speaks directly when His Word is preached fully.

Part I of the series "Church Matters"

Download the sermon: Preaching Matters

Hope for Introverted Preachers!

Just one of many reasons I love Tim Keller. Interviewed in this weeks' World Magazine, Keller talks about how God has prepared him through an introverted personality and love of study to be a gospel-centered preacher in the middle of Manhattan.

The following interview excerpts focus on fighting inferiority and superiority complexes as a pastor:

Q: How did you overcome your "painful introversion"? Are you saying, how did an introvert get to be a megachurch pastor in Manhattan? Very gradually. It is a combination: God called me to be a minister and then decided to prosper my ministry more than a lot of other people's, which was always a surprise. I do not know why. It is not false modesty. I am still not sure why.

Q: Gift and grace? The gift side of it is that God continues to send me people who seem to be helped by the ministry. That overcomes some of your lack of confidence, but the danger of relying on your gifts, saying, "Hey, I am a pretty good preacher, people will come back to listen to me," is that that leads to the opposite of an inferiority complex, a superiority complex, which is probably more deadly. They are both self-absorption.

Q: How do you fight that? As I moved from feeling like nobody likes me to everybody likes me—then you get really famous and nobody likes you again—I had to work on the gospel a lot in my heart. Every time I started to get too big a head, something would come along and God would bring me down. This is the way I think everybody grows. Something would bring me down and I would have to use the gospel to shore up my confidence on the basis of His grace rather than on my gifts. —

Read the rest of Marvin Olasky's interviews with one of my favorite preachers:

"A Wave Came In: How An Introvert Like Tim Keller Became a Great Preacher"

-jsm-

Deep Blue Devotion #4 - Bible Memory Aid

Originally published in WORLD Magazine, Coverdate March 13, 2010. p. 66

Do you need help memorizing Scripture? MemorizeNow.com is a website where you can paste in a passage and then use tools that aid memorization. You can, for instance, see the text with all the words displayed. With a click you can change the setting so only first letters are displayed. Or, from the full text page, you can click and make some words disappear. Scroll over the space where the missing word belongs and the first letter of the missing word appears.

Couple this useful tool with text copied from one of the online Bibles (See the English Standard Version at gnpcb.org)

|| Deep Blue Devotion || a series of biblically creative helps

at jaredstevenmusgrove.blogspot.com, intended to aid in

enhancing intimate times with the Lord and

deepening personal discipleship. ||

To Men of Faith Who Serve In the Shadow of Others

Charles Spurgeon's great devotional work, Morning by Morning, gives this word to you healers, counselors, teachers, mentors, and pastors who are "hindmost in honor and esteem" just as the Danites of ancient Israel. In a great sense, Spurgeon's insightful words here define the work of a discipler. This short devotion has ministered to me on countless occasions and I commend it to you, dear Reader. ---jsm-

“They shall go hindmost with their standards.”

Numbers 2:31

The camp of Dan brought up the rear when the armies of Israel were on the march. The Danites occupied the hindmost place, but what mattered the position, since they were as truly part of the host as were the foremost tribes; they followed the same fiery cloudy pillar, they ate of the same manna, drank of the same spiritual rock, and journeyed to the same inheritance. Come, my heart, cheer up, though last and least; it is thy privilege to be in the army, and to fare as they fare who lead the van. Some one must be hindmost in honour and esteem, some one must do menial work for Jesus, and why should not I? In a poor village, among an ignorant peasantry; or in a back street, among degraded sinners, I will work on, and “go hindmost with my standard.”

The Danites occupied a very useful place. Stragglers have to be picked up upon the march, and lost property has to be gathered from the field. Fiery spirits may dash forward over untrodden paths to learn fresh truth, and win more souls to Jesus; but some of a more conservative spirit may be well engaged in reminding the church of her ancient faith, and restoring her fainting sons. Every position has its duties, and the slowly moving children of God will find their peculiar state one in which they may be eminently a blessing to the whole host.

The rear guard is a place of danger. There are foes behind us as well as before us. Attacks may come from any quarter. We read that Amalek fell upon Israel, and slew some of the hindmost of them. The experienced Christian will find much work for his weapons in aiding those poor doubting, desponding, wavering, souls, who are hindmost in faith, knowledge, and joy. These must not be left unaided, and therefore be it the business of well-taught saints to bear their standards among the hindmost. My soul, do thou tenderly watch to help the hindmost this day.

Deep Blue Devotion #3 - Projected Worship

|| Deep Blue Devotion: a series of biblically creative helps

for enhancing intimate times with the Lord and

deepening personal discipleship. ||

You may have found yourself in the same situation I have: you are in a worship service singing your heart out to words projected on a screen. A thought strikes you: "I wish I knew this song better so I could worship with my eyes closed. Or have the freedom to not be glued to the screen. Or the lead worshipper's guitar face."

I'm a mostly eyes-closed worshipper. I like the minimization of distraction. But there are certain, neigh, many songs I don't know well enough to belt out by heart. So I am somewhat dependent on lyrics projected as I sing. They certainly are necessary (think back to that time last Sunday when the media team skipped or didn't change a slide to the tune. Holy Hush, Batman!).

But I truly dislike being glued to a screen as I sing in worship. It's especially difficult with your head downward in a hymn book (crushes the larynx). So I had the idea of glancing over the dozen or so lyrics on the screen as it changes, then closing my eyes and projecting those words to my Sovereign Father. It's amazing how your brain can pick up the lyrics so quickly and recall them (and it's just fine to peak mid-verse if need be).

Glance back up as the next set of words or chorus pop up on screen, praise and repeat.

Make a joyful noise in worshipping Him this week,

-jsm-

Deep Blue Devotion #2 - Why My Bible Looks Like a Coloring Book

Deep Blue Devotion: a series of biblically creative helps

for enhancing intimate times with the Lord and

deepening personal discipleship.

As you can tell from my blog title (Light Blue) I'm a color-attuned person. And as such I began a Bible-reading practice in college of using colored pens to underline the words of Scripture as I read. It was encouraging to me this week to meet a brother in Christ who did the exact same thing. This has inspired me to share this in this week's DBD about coloring in your Bible.

The year was 2003. The Iraq War began. Scientists mapped 99.9% of the Human Genome. And Coldplay's "Clocks" was in heavy rotation on radio stations. Half-inspired by a shiny-new package of multi-colored G2 pens, the other half from devotional helps someone gave me, I took the new Bible I bought for myself, took a spin through the Scriptures using the DJ Bible Reading Plan for the first time and employed my use of color thusly:

Crimson: Christ-centered or theologically resonant statements

Light Blue: explicit passages of promise and hope

Black: Sobering passages of judgement of justice

Green: Calls and inspirations to personal growth and spiritual formation

Blue: Wisdom or Proverbial statements

Purple: Unadulterated praise to God

That just happened to be the colors contained in that particular package (there was also a pink pen, but I gave it to my sister. Nothing personal against pink, but, yeah...). There are many other pen colors and highlighters out there, but these just seemed to be the ones that stuck with me. There are myriad passages where the colors criss-crossed because of the richness and multifaceted nature of God's Word.

And as I still use that same Bible in lesson preparation and teaching, it is helpful to my teaching and to my heart to have these color-coded reminders of the variety and beauty of God's Word to us.

You don't have to use my color assignments or systems. You may have your own or another idea of marking in such a way as to remind you of truth in the Word (if so, please send it on). But the most important thing is to be reading and interacting with the Bible. It's okay to write (or color) in your Bible.

For me it's been essential.

-jsm-