The Toughest Conversation I’m Glad I Had

We weren’t sure when grandpa woke up, but we knew it was long before the sun did. My earliest memories of him revolve around a small kitchen table where he sat each morning drinking coffee and reading the newspaper. The walls of his basement were decorated with WWII honors and pictures of his hunting victories. Locked gun cases held treasures that we were only allowed to behold when grandpa opened them for us.

I learned my first curse words from my grandfather who was sure to drop some colorful language in at least every other sentence. He could be an intimidating man, but his smile and belly laugh always calmed our trepidation. His love for my grandmother was marked by service and tenderness I’ve rarely seen rivaled. He stood when she came into the room and was attentive to her every need.

Granddad was an occasional churchman. His faith could have best been described as private. As the patriarch of our family, he always prayed for meals during which he took the opportunity to thank God for our country and blast whomever might be president at the time. I never saw him open a Bible and never heard him speak of Jesus, other than when interjecting His name as an expletive.

In 2011, my wife and I planned a trip to Wilmington, NC as part of our family’s summer vacation. We chose this spot because we love the beach, but mostly because my grandparents lived there and we wanted them to meet our son who had recently been born. Our family was buzzing as the days drew closer, but along with the anticipation, there was a weighty awareness that rested on my heart. The Lord was calling me to share the Gospel with my grandfather.

I’d been burdened for his salvation for a number of years, but hadn’t had many in person opportunities to have that kind of conversation with him. Granddad was in his 80’s at that time and though he wasn’t in bad health at that time, I sensed the Lord had set this time apart for me to have an eternally important conversation with him.

I guess I’m like anybody else when it comes to sharing the Gospel. I believe it with all my heart, but whether it be fear of man or feelings of inadequacy, I still get anxious when I proclaim Christ’s name. The pending conversation with granddad took my fear to another level for several reasons.

First, it was grandpa. He was a man of steel and I was scared to death to speak truth to a man who’d lived nearly four times as long as I had. He’d forgotten more than I’ll ever learn and the thought of calling him to repent and believe in Christ made me so anxious I was nearly nauseous over it.

Second, he claimed to be a Christian. He’d gone to church a billion times and had heard as many sermons. He was a long standing member at a Presbyterian Church, but from what I could tell, it would be charitable to say they were light on the Gospel. Though Grandpa was a man of impeccable integrity and faithfulness, he didn’t display fruit that would be characterized as Christ-like (Matt. 7:16; Gal. 5:22-23).

Third, he was family. Family is always tough to share the Gospel with because they know all about you—the good, bad, and the real bad. Grandpa knew me when I was a womanizing coke head who mocked religion and was a disgrace to my family. Though Christ has done a wonderful work in my life, I was still aware that Grandpa knew my past, and on this particular occasion, it haunted me.

Before the trip, I prayed and asked others to do the same with the hopes that God would soften his heart and give me courage to speak truth to him. The Lord answered those prayers and on the last day of our trip, I was able to have a clear 30-minute Gospel conversation with him. At first it was a little tough, but I believe the Lord blessed our time together.

He raised numerous questions and shared some of his doubts, but expressed a willingness to consider the news I had relayed to him. Once I returned I sent him a letter addressing his questions, some selected Scriptures to consider, and a copy of my friend Mike McKinnley’s excellent book Am I Really a Christian? We had one follow-up conversation, during which he said, “I’ve never understood this ‘born-again’ thing, but I think I’m starting to get it.”

Granddad died on December 17^th, 2012 with his wife of 55 years by his side. He’d requested to be cremated and my grandmother fulfilled his request. On Saturday I had the honor of leading a memorial service in his birthplace of Currituck, NC.

In the days since his death, I’ve often wondered whether or not the seed sown upon his soul took root. I have hope that God brought about repentance in faith in my grandfather before he died, but I cannot be certain. What I can be certain of however is that the Scriptures are true which say “the fear of man is a snare” (Prov. 29:25).

No matter what man we fear—even if its grandpa; fear is a snare. Fear is a snare for us and it is a snare for those who need to hear the message that can save their souls. The Gospel is the power of God for salvation (Rom. 1:16) and it is good news, but as Carl F. H. Henry said, “it is only good news if it gets there in time.”

I have not always obeyed the Lord’s call for me to share the Gospel with people. To this day there are several scenes that haunt my memory. I know that though I withheld the Gospel from some, God’s mercy is still extended to me. This only highlights the abundance of God’s grace towards undeserving sinners like me.

The conversation with my grandfather was one of the toughest ones I’ve ever had, but the hindsight that his death provided for me has been sobering. My fear seems quite shortsighted today. At this moment my grandfather is in eternity. He sees what we have only heard. Christ is more real to him now than when we sat at his kitchen table and when he read the Scriptures that pointed to the Lord of glory.

I trust that on that Last Day when we all stand before that Great Throne of Judgment, the fear of man will be shown for the utter foolishness that it is. The weightiness of eternity is intended to press us into a deeper dependence upon Christ to do what He has called us to do while we still can. To be paralyzed by fear of people’s opinions, rather than stirred to declare the truth that can deliver people destruction is a most saddening tradeoff.

God has placed each of us in the families, neighborhoods, classrooms, and workplaces that He has to be ambassadors of Christ (2 Cor. 5:20). We are not there by chance, and there is no time to waste. Pray for God to open doors for the Gospel and ask Him to give you courage to speak His Name. I believe deeply that one day, when we stand before Christ, those tough conversations will be among those we’ll be eternally glad we had.

Satan’s Strategy to Destroy Your Marriage Before it Begins

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Tim and Jess had only been married for 8 months, but the honeymoon was most certainly over. The sweet conversations that once marked their relationship had been replaced with constant bickering. Their laughter had dulled and their distance had grown. Their sexual intimacy had almost ceased.

What had gone wrong? How had Satan slipped into this young couple’s marriage? As we unpacked some of their history, I discovered that he hadn’t sabotaged them on their honeymoon or in the early months of figuring out married life. Instead, he’d begun his work before they even made it to the altar. You see, though Tim and Jess are Christians, their dating and engagement was marked with sexual impurity.

The early days of their relationship had been fine, but over time, they made consistent compromises that developed into a deeper pattern of sexual sin. When they’d sin, they confessed to each other and, made oaths to not let it happen again. But it did. Because of the shame, they never truly let anyone else in on what was happening, and in hindsight they admitted that their courtship had been a big cover-up of deceit.

Unfortunately, Tim and Jess’s story is all too familiar. Many unmarried Christian couples struggle with sexual sin. And this should be no surprise, we have an enemy who is set against us and set against our impending marriage (1 Pt. 5:8). This enemy hates God and he hates marriage because marriage itself is a portrayal of the Gospel (Eph. 5:32). And Satan wants to do whatever he can to undermine marriage.

One of Satan’s most effective strategies to corrupt the Gospel portraying union of marriage is to attack couples before they say “I do” through sexual sin. What follows are several of Satan’s most common ploys to attacking marriages before they begin. (Eph. 6:11; 1 Pt. 5:8)

1. Satan wants us to make a pattern of obeying our desires instead of God’s direction.

God’s ways are good, but Satan wants us to believe they are not. This has been his plan from the first call to compromise in the Garden of Eden (Gen. 3:1-6). His end goal is for us to develop a consistent pattern of resisting the Spirit and following our sinful desires once we get into marriage. He wants us to learn to resist service and to pursue selfishness.

If we learn to do what we want to do when we want to do it before we get married, we’ll carry that pattern into the days that follow our wedding. This is deadly because service and sacrifice is essential to a healthy, Christ-honoring marriage. Love in marriage is shown by a thousand daily decisions to do the dishes when you don’t want to or change a diaper when you don’t want to or watch a movie instead of a basketball game. If your relationship before marriage is characterized by giving into urges of the immediate desire, you’ll most certainly struggle when you get into the nitty-gritty of married life.

2. Satan wants us to underestimate how susceptible we are to temptation.

Satan wants us to think that we won’t take our sin to the next level. He wants us to think that we’re stronger than we really are. He wants to make us think that we’ll never go “that far.” This is a powerful trick because it plays upon our well-intended desire to honor God and our pride at the same time. Trust me, you’re weaker than you think you are. You can go where you think you won’t go. Sin is like an undercurrent in the ocean, if you play in it, you will be overpowered and carried away into certain destruction.

One of the ways Satan works this angle is to tempt you to think that purity is a line rather than a posture of the heart. He wants you to think that purity before God is not kissing or not taking off clothes or not having oral sex or not “going all the way.” He wants you to think that if you don’t cross a certain line, you’re “staying pure.” The problem with this kind of thinking is that Jesus says if we lust in our heart, we’ve sinned and are condemned before God (Mt. 5:27-30).

Purity is much more about the posture of our heart than about the position of our body. The age old question of “how far is too far” may be revealing a desire to get as close to sin as possible rather than a desire to “flee” as God calls us to (1 Cor. 6:18). So I ask you, what’s the posture of your heart? Are you seeking to find ways to flee from lust or getting as close as you can? Be careful to not underestimate your vulnerability, or as Paul said, “let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall” (1 Cor. 10:12).

3. Satan wants couples to weaken their trust for each other.

When we compromise sexually we’re showing the other person that we’re willing to use and abuse them to get what makes you happy. Every time we push the boundaries with our fiancée or lead each other into sin we are communicating, even though we don’t mean to, “you can’t trust me because I’m willing to use you and disregard you to get what I want.”

And even worse than that, we show that we care more about our desires than about what God wants from us. 1 Thessalonians 4:3 says “this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality” and that v8 “whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you.” So when you sin sexually against each other before marriage you are saying, “You can’t trust me because I’m willing to sacrifice both of our relationships with God to do what I want.”

This is certainly one of the most deadly of all his strategies and the one I suspect hurt Tim and Jess the most. They didn’t trust each other. They never really did. So much of their dating relationship was wrapped up in the cycle of sin, shame, start-over that they never developed a deep mature battle-tested trust for each other.

It is important to point out however that when we resist sexual sin, God blesses a relationship with the exact opposite effect. Every time we say “no” to sexual sin and turn to prayer and tell each other that we value them and their walk with God too much to go one step further, God uses that to strengthen trust between couples. My wife regularly tells dating couples that one of the reasons she trusts me is because I literally ran from compromising situations before we were married. We weren’t perfect in our courtship, but the Lord used that season to build trust in each other.

4. Satan wants to deceive you with the forbidden fruit of lust.

There is a world of difference between pre-marital sex and sex within marriage. One of the reasons for this is that in pre-marital sex the forbidden fruit of lust portrays sex as something that it isn’t always in marriage. Most normally, pre-marital sexual activity is like gas on fire. The passion is high, the feelings are intense, and the drive to go further is fueled by the fact that you know you shouldn’t (Rom. 7:8).

Sex in marriage is different. There’s still passion and there’s still intense feelings and emotions—but sex in marriage is based primarily on the hot coals of trust, devotion, and sacrifice (1 Cor. 7:1-5). Couples who built their sexual expectations on the passion that the forbidden fruit provided are often disappointed and confused about why sex is so different in marriage.

Now, to be candid, my wife and I laughed at this idea when our pre-marital counselor told us. We were sure that we were gonna be the exception to the rule. But the reality is, that almost 6 years and 3 children later, he was right. Couples like us can have a strong sex life, but it is fueled by deeper characteristics than fleeting passion. Satan wants couples to get used to running on the caffeine and sugar of lust rather than mature love of service and sacrifice.

A few concluding thoughts…

1. Wait in Faith. The Christian posture is always one of waiting. We wait for Christ’s return. We wait for an eternity with Him. And people who aren’t married wait for the blessings of marriage. Say no to sin’s promises by faith in God’s promises. Renew your mind with God’s Word and keep waiting in faith.

2. Dude, you’ve gotta lead. While both people in the relationship are responsible before God, the man in the relationship must set the pace for purity. Too often our ladies are forced to draw lines and say no. That’s just wrong and cowardly. It’s the dude’s responsibility to care for his future wife by leading her toward Jesus and away from sin—and not into the darkness and pain of evil. If he sets the wrong pattern here, he’ll be digging out for years afterward—and may never regain the ground he loses apart from God’s grace.

3. Involve others every step of the way. Don’t allow your relationship to remain unexamined by other godly Christians. Both of you should have a godly couple or faithful friends who keep you accountable. Encourage them to ask you tough questions and always give honest answers. God uses transparency to give spiritual strength.

4. If you sin, go to the Gospel. The Apostle John said “My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One” (1 John 2:1-2). If you sin, flee to the cross. Flee to the empty tomb. Look to Christ, confess your sin deeply, and repent. God blesses this kind of posture (Prov. 28:13).

Scott’s Story – He Hated God, But God Loved Him Anyway

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Scott (left) and Mark were long time friends. Now they are brothers for eternity.

Scott hated God. But God loved him anyway. I recently had the honor of baptizing this former rebel in a public display of his new found devotion to Christ. Be encouraged by the testimony he shared with our church from the baptismal waters on Sunday. And be challenged to keep sharing the Gospel with those whom you’d least expect to one day love Jesus.

For as long as I can remember I’ve believed in myself and looked to myself for guidance on everything in life. I thought if I just focus my efforts I could make myself loveable, likeable, competent, and just an all-around good person that others would affirm that I was in fact a pretty great person. With such a mindset, it’s not surprising to me now, nor probably to you, that my life was filled with anger, depression, self-loathing, and a sharp distrust of others. Talk of God was a joke to me, albeit one that I tried to “respect” when I was in a good mood.

During the last 10 years, I’ve lived with a Gospel-believing Christian friend Mark, who, during many “intellectual” and “philosophical” debates never hesitated to share his belief in God and Jesus’ work on the cross. It sometimes infuriated me that such a well-meaning, otherwise rational person could hold fast to such irrational, self-demeaning nonsense. I’d say “how can you love someone or count them as a friend when you honestly believe they deserve eternal damnation?” And he would say it is out of love that he shares the Gospel with people in hopes that they would be saved from that. So frustrating!

But back in August, things began to change. Mark and I met Claire, by complete chance (from my perspective at the time) at a bar in Old Town and we both were struck by her willingness to talk about God openly in such a situation, to Mark’s delight and, honestly, to my annoyance. We all grew to become good friends over the following

months, though every time God was brought up I bristled. I’ll admit, though, that I started to see something in their eyes that I hadn’t noticed before: a joy and a hope that I didn’t have and didn’t understand, and it made me curious.

In January, I found myself in the midst of a brutal storm of loneliness and confusion. I felt like my self-sufficient little boat had been smashed on the rocks and I recognized that I

had no hope in anything other than myself and I was failing myself again and again. So, in tears at work, I texted Mark and asked him to teach me what faith is.

Mark pointed my eyes in the direction of Christ. He explained the crucifixion, and for the first time in my life, as I listened, the picture of Jesus on the cross became real to me. I imagined His perfect life, His genuine love for people who treated Him with hostility and distrust, His patience with them, and the false accusations made against Him leading to

Him being nailed to a cross and mocked even as He was hanging there. But more than the physical pain His Heavenly Father mercilessly poured His infinite wrath into Him on behalf of many people, including myself for the lies I’ve told, my lust for control over my own life, my slanderous attitude against Him for much of my life, my self-destructive tendencies, my anger, among so many other things.

I asked Mark to stop at this point so I could keep thinking more about what Christ had done and I prayed that God would show me the depth of my sins against Him. Every night

I prayed that I’d understand my sin which was helped by Mark and I watching John Piper’s sermons online. I was getting excited about reading the bible and hearing preaching here at Del Ray, but I still couldn’t call myself a Christian.

Mark asked if I understood the significance of the resurrection, and I told him I’d heard it, but I didn’t really feel like I understood it. After he explained that without Christ’s return to life the penalty he took on the cross would’ve been meaningless, and we’d all continue to be under God’s judgment, it came together like two pieces of a puzzle. Later

that week I went to my window at work and repented of my many sins and asked for God’s mercy in the name of Jesus Christ.

Since then I’ve been told, and I’ve noticed, that my anger has subsided considerably. My cursing stopped without my conscious control. My distrust of others began to erode,

not to the point of foolishness, but when you recognize the struggles of others and see your own difficulties in them it is impossible not to have love for them. God has also put me in several situations where I was asked to share His word with others – once with a random person at the dog park, and once with my dad prior to a surgery he recently had.

I felt blessed that God would allow me to speak about Him and point people in His direction. But most importantly, I’m grateful for what he has provided for me in my life. I am grateful that He called me to Him through two of my best friends. I am grateful that He has given me a growing love for His word. I pray in hope that I am suitable soil and

that He will never let me go back to self-worship. I want to be baptized today as a public gesture of my faith in Christ and His work, and as a reminder of the death that I deserve and the life that I have been given, justified by Him in the eyes of the Father, and washed clean of my guilt by His blood and the movement of the Spirit.

Praise God for His mercy. Praise God for faithful friends who share the Gospel. Go tell somebody about the good news that Jesus saves sinners.

Rebel Roll Call – Should Shai Linne Publicly Name Fal$e Teacher$?

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Joel Osteen. Creflo Dollar. Benny Hinn. T.D. Jakes. Joyce Meyer. Paula White. Fred Price. Kenneth Copeland. Robert Tilton. Eddie Long. Juanita Bynum. Paul Crouch.

“I know they popular but don’t let them deceive ya” – Shai Linne

Track 10 on Shai Linne’s new album Lyrical Theology has been getting a lot of attention recently because in it he publicly calls out some household names as being false teachers. Shai also put out a brief video explaining why he chose to write the song and how he prepared to write it. I encourage you to check out the song and the video if you haven’t already.

What I’d like us to consider is should Shai Linne, and should any of us, ever publicly point out someone we believe to be a “false teacher?” To help us answer this, let’s consider a few questions about Model, Method, Motive, and Message.

Is There a Biblical Model for Name Dropping?

Yes. In the Old Testament God regularly warns Israel that the lies of false teachers defame His name and defile His people (Num. 12:6; Deut.18; Jeremiah 23:18-22; Lam. 2:14-15; etc.). Though there aren’t many false teachers listed by name in the Old Testament Scriptures, Jannes and Jambres (Exod. 7:11; 2 Tim. 3:7) and Baalam are later exposed as being deceivers (Num. 22-23, 31:16; 2 Peter 2:15; Jude 11; Rev. 2:14).

In the New Testament, name dropping becomes a bit more regular. Jesus called out the Pharisees and Sadducees throughout His ministry (Matt. 5:20, 16:6, etc.) as well as other false teachers when He speaks to John about the 7 churches of Revelation (Rev. 2-3). Paul publicly named Hymenaeus twice (1 Tim. 1:20; 2 Tim. 2:17), Alexander (1 Tim. 1:20), Philetus (2 Tim. 2:17), and the formerly faithful Demas (Col. 4:14; Philemon 24; 2 Timothy 4:10) as having abandoned the truth. The Apostle John also mentions Diotrephes (3 John 9). This brief survey shows that there certainly is a biblical model of outing false teachers by publicly stating their names.

Is Our Method Dignified?

Though there is a biblical model for name dropping, we should make sure that if we choose to call people out, that we have a dignified method in doing so. Because we are each made in God’s image, we must strive to aim attacks at what people say rather than how they say it, what they look like, or anything else we might be tempted to focus on. We want to guard against mocking people or using them as props to make a point. Our goal must always be to make the Gospel clear, not make ourselves look good at the cost of others.

I have been a poor model of this at times in my own ministry. I once imitated Joel Osteen in a sermon and another time poked fun at Mormon missionaries’ bikes and badges during a seminar on the Gospel. These were ungodly and unloving decisions of which I’ve repented. I was helped in seeing my sin by a gracious couple who told me that they had almost brought a Mormon friend to the seminar I was teaching and were thankful they hadn’t because I might have driven them further from Christ because of my mocking. It was a hard lesson to learn, but I’m eternally grateful for the couple who pointed out my sin.

When we name drop, we must strive to uphold the dignity of those we publicly expose. So if you name names, keep the focus on the teaching as much as possible and treat them as you’d want to be treated if you were being called out (Matt. 7:12). One way of doing this is being slow to speak about people’s motives. God certainly knows the motive of false teachers (Mic. 3:11; Ezek. 22:25; Titus 1:10-11; 1 Tim. 6:3-5; 2 Tim. 3:1-9; 2 Pet. 2:2-14) but we should be slow to speak about people’s motives because, in the end, only the Lord knows the heart (Jer. 17:10; 1 Cor. 4:3-5).

What Are Our Motives?

As with anything we do, we must always examine our motives (Matt. 5:28; Acts 8:22; Heb. 4:12). If we’re going to publicly accuse someone of being a false teacher, we should ask some close friends to help us examine our heart by asking questions like:

Is it necessary to expose this person?

Am I sure that they are a false teacher?

What am I hoping to gain from doing this?

Is there a chance I can speak with them personally first?

Do my fellow pastors think I should do this?

These are good questions to ask as we pray the prayer of David in Psalm 139:23-24 “Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!”

If after prayer and wise counsel we trust that our motive is to uphold the truth of the Gospel (Jude 3) and to make sure that people are not led astray into error (James 5:19-20), then we should feel free to name drop for the glory of God and the good of His people. If you need help discerning whether someone is indeed a false teacher, Colin Smith’s article (here) is a great read.

What is the True Message?

Calling out false teachers is certainly necessary to guard the flock from following after their teachings. It is even more necessary for us to make the true Gospel clear. Tearing down false gospels is only good if people are able to see the true Gospel for what it is.

This is clear throughout the New Testament and, I am thankful to say, is abundantly clear in the music ministry of Shai Linne. We must first and foremost be people who are about the Gospel because it is the power of God for salvation to all who believe, even those who were once formerly false teachers.

So if we are going to call out people who teach falsely, we must make sure to clearly show what it means to trust in the true Christ. Show clearly where the false teachers are wrong and display clearly how much infinitely greater the true Christ is. May we be a people who love Christ publicly with both grace and truth that, as Shai says “Jesus is not a means to an end, [but] the Gospel is He came to redeem us from sin.” Amen and Amen.

Photo courtesy of: Ex-Charisma.com

A Christian Man’s Travel Plan

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I recently traveled away from home to teach the book of Hebrews in Memphis, TN and then the book of Romans in Little Rock, AR. As I prepared for my trip, there were three basic things on my mind: family, purity, and ministry. I thought I’d share how I plan to be on the road in case it might help you prepare for your own travels.

Family

Whenever I’m gone, I want to make sure my family knows that I love them and that I’m thinking about them. I do this with phone calls, but I also do a couple other things.

For my wife I write her a card for each day I’ll be gone. The card usually has a short prayer or a couple sentences telling her something I love about her, and then a verse of Scripture. It takes about 20 minutes to do these cards (depending on how long the trip is) and I’m pretty sure it blesses her more than I realize.
For the kids, I try to rally them together before I leave and show them on a map where I’m going. I ask them to pray for me while I’m gone and tell them what I plan to do while I’m there. I don’t always leave them something to open when I’m away, but I always bring them something back to let them know they were on my mind while I was there.

Purity

I know that while I travel I will face temptations in ways that I don’t always when I’m at home. I may be a pastor, but I’m still just a dude, so I’ve got to be on guard. To do this, I make sure of the following:

I’m prayed up. I do my best to intentionally ask God to protect me during my trip from wandering heart, wandering eyes, and wandering feet. While I travel, I strive with extra effort to have solid devotional times. It is easy to neglect this discipline when I’m on the road because of the change in my routine, but there’s always excuses to not draw near to Christ—so I fight it fervently. Keeping my eyes on Him is my only hope to honor God, so I do my best to draw daily upon His grace during my trips.
I’m partnered up. I don’t like traveling alone, but when I have to, I enlist several brothers to help me. These men know my weaknesses and have committed to pray for me while I’m gone—and sometimes they’ll even check in on me during my trip. I’ve been 100% transparent with these brothers about my struggles and they know the tough questions to ask me when I’m gone. I’m too weak to fight this fight alone, so I’m thankful for these brothers who keep me accountable.
I’m planning to kill the TV. As soon as I step into the hotel room I unplug the TV and promise God I won’t plug it back in. Me + hotel room + TV = trouble, so I don’t flip through the channels—and I don’t give myself the chance. I also don’t get the internet in my hotel room. I figure people lived without the .com for a really long time and I can go to the lobby if I really need it. God tells me to make no provision for my flesh and I have to obey Him (Rom. 13:14).

Ministry

While most of my trips are ministry related, there are some basic things I try to do, just because I’m a Christian.

I pray for God to set up divine appointments. Regardless of why I travel or where I travel, I am an ambassador for the King of Glory (2 Cor. 5:20). In light of this, I ask Him to set up encounters with people He wants me to talk to about Him. Whether it be on the plane, in a taxi, in a restaurant, at the hotel, or wherever I am, I ask Him to make me attentive to the people He has placed around me. I pray for Him to open doors for me to share the Gospel and to point people to Jesus. We must always be available to be used by Him. Ask Him to set up divine appointments.
I bring a tract and an extra bible. One of the things I’ve found to be profitable is to have a copy of a non-goofy tract like 2 Ways To Live that helps people understand the Gospel message. I don’t always use it when I’m sharing the Gospel, but I do think it’s good to leave something with them to read after our conversation is over. I also bring a pocket sized bible that I can part with, so I don’t have to decide if I am willing to part with my personal Bible in the case that someone needs a copy of God’s Word.

These are a few basic things that I try to make sure I do each time I travel. Please let me know of other ideas you have about traveling as a Christian man. May God be honored in our lives, wherever we may go.

Dear Christian, Your Reward is Not in this World.

30 Day Reading Plan for a New Believer

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By God’s grace, last night I was able to share the Gospel with a new friend who turned from trusting in himself and the god of Islam to follow Jesus as His Lord and Savior.

To help him begin to grow in his new faith, I put together a 30 day bible reading plan for him. It’s set up to get him a big picture of the Bible’s story. I’m sure there are better ones out there, but here’s what we’re working through.

I’ve also encouraged him with the following guidelines:

1. Ask God to help you understand what you are reading. Pray something like “open my eyes and my heart to understand your word.” God delights in showing Himself o His children as they draw near to Him in faith.

2. The most important thing is not that you make it through each of these readings each day, but that you process what you read.Move at your own pace, this is just some direction for you to follow.

3. Write down questions that you have as you read and we will talk about them together.

Please pray for this young believer and feel free to use this guideline for yourself or anyone else who might benefit.

____Day 1 – The Creation and Fall of Humanity – Genesis 1:1–3:19

____Day 2 – God Calls A People His Own – Genesis 12, 28:10–15; 32:22–28

____Day 3 – The 10 Commandments – Exodus 14:1-20:17

____Day 4 – Obedience Flows From Love – Deuteronomy 6:1-7:26, 11:13–21

____Day 5 – Cycles of Disobedience in God’s People – Judges 1:1-2: 19

____Day 6 – The People Demand a King – 1 Samuel 7-9

____Day 7 – The Fall of Saul and Rise of David – 1 Samuel 15-17

____Day 8 – How the Righteous Respond to Hard Times – Job 1-2, 38-42

____Day 9 – Psalms that Enrich Your Soul – Psalm 1, 23, 139

____Day 10 – Psalms for the Suffering and Sinful – Psalm 6, 38, 51

____Day 11 – Wisdom for Everyday Life – Proverbs 3, 16, then 5, 7 (men) and 31 (ladies)

____Day 12 – Israel’s Sin Against Their God – Ezekiel 18:1-32, 20:5–26

____Day 13 – Jesus the Promised King – Jeremiah 23:1–6; Isaiah 9:6–7, 53; Zechariah 9

____Day 14 – Jesus Became Man – John 1:1–18; Luke 2

____Day 15 – Signs and Miracles of Authority – Matt 8-9; Luke 13:10–17

____Day 16 – Jesus Fulfills the Law – Matthew 5-7

____Day 17 – Jesus Teaches About New Life – John 3-4

____Day 18 – Jesus Willingly Taken – John 18-19

____Day 19 – Jesus’ Death and Resurrection – Matthew 26-28, Luke 23-24

____Day 20 – Jesus our Savior and the Final Sacrifice – Hebrews 3-4, 8-10

____Day 21 – The Sinfulness of Man Exposed – Romans 1-3

____Day 22 – God’s Grace in Christ Jesus – Romans 3-5

____Day 23 – We Battle Sin by the Spirit – Romans 6-8, Galatians 5:16-26

____Day 24 – Living a Life of Worship – Romans 12-13

____Day 25 – New Life in Christ – Ephesians 1-6

____Day 26 – Living Out A Life of Faith – James 1-5

____Day 27 –Trusting Jesus While Facing Persecution – 1 Peter 1-5

____Day 28 – Walk in the Light of God’s Truth – 1 John 1–2

____Day 29 – Love One Another – 1 John 3-5

____Day 30 – Promise of Eternity – Revelation 19-22

Wednesday Wisdom – Proverbs 23:17-18 – Avoid Envy’s Illusion

“Daddy, What’s Abortion?”

8 Replies

As a parent, we get all kinds of questions from our children. “Why” seems to be the most frequent question in our house. There’s also plenty about unicorns, the Philistines (my daughter is amazed by them right now?), and what’s so bad about having chocolate for breakfast. But yesterday my daughter asked me one of the toughest questions to date.

“Daddy, what’s abortion?”

The news was on at our house and when she heard the unfamiliar word and her inquisitive 4 year old mind went to work. Now, I’m a believer in age-appropriate answers…but I felt my inadequacy on this one. I stood there as my daughter’s innocent eyes looked to me awaiting an answer to a seemingly normal question about a word she hadn’t noticed before.

It was one of those moments in time that I don’t think I’ll soon forget. There’s an innocence that a parent wants to preserve in their child, but when they ask questions, we need to try to answer. God gave us minds to think with and we want our children to learn to engage with the world in which they live. So I said to her, “it’s when someone makes a baby stop being in their mommy’s belly.” I thought that answer was a safe and adequate response to a topic I hoped we could press into at a later age. But it wasn’t.

“Where does the baby go?” she replied. “They go to heaven” I said. “Is the baby dead?” she asked. “Yes, honey, in an abortion the baby dies when the person takes it out of their mommy’s belly.” A moment of silence followed as she took it all in. “Do they kill the baby?”

We’ve tried to be wise in shielding our daughter from the horrors of the world she lives in, but during the Newton tragedy, she asked many difficult questions as well and she learned a lot about death and murder and the fact that some people kill other people. Since that day, she has been tuned into the fact that people kill each other sometimes.

“Why would someone do that? “Why would someone kill their baby? ” she asked. “There are lots of reasons people do it sweetheart, everyone has different reasons, people just do.” Now, if you don’t know me, I need to tell you that when I was 21 a girlfriend and I chose to have an abortion. You can read about that here. So this post is written by an imperfect man who has done many things he regrets. But when she asked me this question, I couldn’t find a way to explain it.

“How does someone kill their baby?” she asked. I explained to her that normally, doctors helped mommies do this and that all doctors didn’t do this. At this point, I felt like we had gone far enough and I changed the subject.

As I’ve reflected on all of this, two things have weighed heavily on my heart.

The first is the sadness a parent feels as they watch their children begin to process what it means to live in a sinful, fallen world. It was heartbreaking to watch my daughter, who already loves the idea of marriage and having children, process the idea that someone would kill their child. I saw a bit of her child-like innocence die on that Monday morning. It was gut wrenching. I know these types of conversations will happen. She will have her heart broken. She will fail a test. She will get rejected from something. She’ll miss an easy lay-up. Those things will come. But yesterday’s question seemed to come too early and too sincerely. She drank it in and it stung her.

Today she and I have a daddy daughter date and I plan to follow up with her about our conversation. We’ll talk about 1 Peter 2:11 and what it means to live in a fallen world. I pray God will use the terror she feels about sin to open her heart to believe in Christ. May God give us wisdom to shepherd our children’s hearts through the sad realities of this fallen world.

The second thing I left the conversation with was a fresh burden to see abortion ended. I know that ending abortion raises other issues. I’m not saying those issues are light. Unplanned pregnancies can be a terrifying thing. But, please, something has to happen. We are killing babies. We are killing babies. We are killing babies. Every day, thousands of them. Something has to happen.

What is the answer? There is no easy answer. There are many things that have to be considered, but the bottom line is that we need God to intervene. We need Him to use His people to cry with those who find out they are pregnant when they didn’t intend to be. We need His church to rise up and walk along side mothers and be willing to adopt these children. We need God to move in the hearts of abortion doctors like a dear friend of mine who came to me one day after a sermon and confessed that he had been doing abortions for years and that he was repenting and asking Christ to forgive him. We need the Holy Spirit of God to show us how to be compassionate and bold at the same time. We need the Lord Jesus to change many hearts…including our own. Is this impossible? “Nothing is impossible with God” (Luke 1:37). Let us pray and act in faith in a great God who can change any heart and any civilization.

My prayer is that my daughter will see a dramatic change in the posture of our country toward abortion. My prayer is that one day, if she has children of her own, that she will be able to talk with them about abortion as something that was ended during her generation and that my granddaughter will grow up in a day much different than the one we are in today. May God give us grace, we are in need.

Mr. Spurgeon, How Should We Let Sinners Go to Hell?

Garrett Kell

Laboring in the Harvest of the Lord of Hosts