Listen Better - Part 7 of 7 - Apply the Sermon

Part 1 - Introduction
Part 6 - Revisit the Sermon

We have not come to the preaching merely to hear what we do not know, but to be incited to do our duty. ~ John Calvin

Leaving a sermon you should be motivated to love God more, hate sin more, help people more, and obey God’s Word more. This is why it is a poor sermon that puffs up the audience to think they have somehow reached the pinnacle of sanctification or that their community has all of its needs met. Many sermons will declare "Peace, peace!" when there is no peace, and in so doing will lull their hearers into a sense of security and comfort when no-such luxury exists in the world.

The sermon should always exalt Christ and humble men. It was to this effect that Benjamin Franklin wrote of the preaching of George Whitefield, “The multitudes of all sects and denominations that attended his sermons were enormous…and how much they admired and respected him, notwithstanding his common abuse of them, by assuring them they were naturally ‘half beasts and half devils.’” Whitefield said of preaching, “It is a poor sermon that gives no offense, that neither makes the hearer displeased with himself nor with the preacher.”

Therefore, this is one of the harder articles to write, I could sink to moralism to tell you how to respond in every case. But, dear reader, the point is not in the act, but in the impetus to respond to how you are convicted. Haddon Robinson went so far as to call a direct application heresy, because in telling a congregation exactly what to do, the preacher denies the work of the Holy Spirit. Robinson instead recommends something to the effect, “This is the principle, and the principle is clear. How this principle applies in our lives may differ with different people in different situations.”

One thing is clear and concrete: If you sit under the most wonderful preaching but fail to act on it, you will at once forget what you heard. James writes that, 

If anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing. ~ James 1:23-25

Charles Spurgeon, a man with a vocabulary that could make a dictionary blush for inadequacy, once gave the application thusly,

Dear reader, after you sit under the Word of God next, I implore you, do something with that sermon once you’ve heard it!

Listen Better - Part 6 of 7 - Revisit the Sermon

Part 1 - Introduction
Part 5 - Take Notes

The last installment dealt with taking notes DURING the sermon. Taking notes is a great way to ensure you are engaging your brain to focus on main points and record them. But the best notes, mental or physical, are meant to be revisited.

Therefore, after you leave the meeting house, revisit the sermon and consider what you learned. The prime time for Satan to snatch the Word from you is after it is sown (cf. Matthew 13:19). Consider what you learned, what you were convicted about, and what the application was.

It helps to discuss it with someone, this has the added benefit that they may have been convicted by something you weren’t, or in a different way than you were. If something was unclear the two of you may be able to clarify it to one another or discover that it requires clarification from the pastor or further research.

Further, you may be just the person to encourage your companion, or he may be able to encourage you, to respond to the command of the passage. History is replete with men and women who resolved to give their lives to foreign missions but who did not immediately have opportunity to do so, only afterward when someone provided an opportunity did they revisit their call and then go on to attempt great things for God while expecting great things from God. The biography of Nate Saint offers one such example.

Then, reread the sermon passage at least once; the Bereans are called noble, and their response to hearing great preaching was to examine the scriptures (Acts 17:11). We are fools to think that we can reach the full potential God has called us to if we live in a vacuum. Our pastor, our teachers, our fellow-workers are gifts from God to shine light on the scriptures so that in revisiting their thoughts—and the things the Holy Spirit has revealed to them—as we read the scriptures we are growing in our resolve and understanding to know the Word of God, and in knowing it, to obey it.

So: what did you hear preached last? Open that passage and consider what you heard, and see if God does not grow your faith through the endeavor.

Part 7 - Apply the Sermon

Listening Comprehension Quiz

This video shows a dangerous situation that ended better than it could have. The analysis by the pilot shows that this successful emergency landing was not on accident. The following quiz uses this entertaining video to teach them how to listen. Recommended ages 5-105.

P-51 Emergency Landing at Duxford – Listening Comprehension Test 

When did the pilot, Mark Levi, say he needed to know the emergency procedures?

   a.       When the engine stopped

   b.       When he realized he couldn’t make it to the airport

   c.       Before he ever flew the airplane and before every flight

   d.       Before he got his pilot’s license

The pilot said “Don’t make your emergency someone else’s emergency.” How did he do this?

   a.       By keeping the canopy on the airplane so it didn’t land on anyone

   b.       By not trying to cross the freeway to reach the airport

   c.       By turning away from the airport which was crowded with people

   d.       All of the Above

When the engine sputtered the first time, what did the pilot say he SHOULD have done?

   a.       Ignore it since the engine started running again

   b.       Make a precautionary landing

   c.       Deny that there was a problem

   d.       Get ready for it to happen again

Is it more important to save the airplane or the pilot? Extra credit: Write out why below.

   a.       Pilot

   b.       Airplane

When you know you are going to crash, what should you do?

   a.       Give up because you can’t land safely

   b.       Fly the airplane as far into the crash as you can

   c.       Get close to the ground then hold on tight

When you have too many things going on, what is it called?

   a.       Task Saturation

   b.       Over busy

   c.       Underwhelmed

   d.       Overwhelmed

What mistake did task saturation cause the pilot to make?

   a.       Lowered his landing gear because someone told him to, even though you should not land a P-51 off-airport with the gear down, and it causes you to slow down in the air too quickly

   b.       Missed the airport

   c.       Landed in the wrong field

Listen Better – Part 5 of 7 – Take Notes

Part 1 - Introduction
Part 4 - Take Every Thought Captive

Part of being a good listener is understanding that much of what you are receiving will require recall in the future. Sometimes someone may yell, “Duck!” or “Watch Out!” and your instantaneous action (or inaction) will suffice to show whether you were listening. But most of our listening requires some sort of memory creation and recollection.

For this reason we must make every effort to remember what were are hearing so we can revisit and use the information we’ve received. We see this is multiple places in scripture, we see Mary treasuring up the events of Christ’s birth in her heart (Luke 2:19), we see the disciples remembering things that Christ had said and did after his resurrection (John 2:22), and Paul requests Timothy to bring his notes and scripture to him in prison (2 Timothy 4:13). There are myriad other places that this occurs, and also places where forgetfulness leads to disaster (Consider at minimum Genesis 40:23, Hosea 4:6, & Mark 8:14,17).

These notes can be taken mentally or physically. They can be simple or comprehensive. They can be a jot or a paragraph. I have in my Bible a line through the 10 at the beginning of John 10, that simple line reminds me that there is no time that passes between the end of John 9 and the beginning of John 10 and that they are meant to be understood together. Other times I have extensive notes, for example Jonah Chapter 1.5 is my consolidated notes on most (not quite everything) of what I know about the Book of Jonah that isn’t directly contained in the text. The amount of notes may vary and even the quality, but the important thing is something that reminds and helps you to recollect.

This article is not meant to teach you how to best recall, there are a nearly infinite number of resources available that will teach you how to best take notes, the important thing is that you are taking notes about what you’re reading and hearing from God. A couple of things I recommend in my “Simple Listening Handout” are to ask yourself, “How would I teach this?”, “What should I ask the pastor to clarify?” & “What should I further research?”

As I’ve grown older I’ve realized that what I put into my brain is not incorruptible or perpetual. Things I thought I would remember forever have faded into obscurity. I’ve learnt not to trust myself to simply remember a Bible verse, but that it’s good to have a Bible readily available when I think I can simply recall a verse. It reminded me of this verse from Psalm 73:26, “My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”

One final aside, some of the great men of history were known to either be men of one 
singular focus, or to keep extensive lists. May we do both! May our singular focus be the glory of Christ proclaimed, but may we also have a reminder of how we intend to do it! I have seen my productivity soar in keeping notes, lists, and utilizing the “task organizers” within Microsoft Outlook and Gmail. I no longer trust myself to “remember to do that later”, now I write it down, whether it is a clear command from God from scripture, a needed conversation, or simply an encouraging word. I was at a recent conference (Refuel 2019) and the notebook they handed out said it so well,

Inspiration Unrecorded Is Quickly Forgotten.

May we heed that warning in our lives!

Part 6 - Revisit the Sermon

Listen Better - Part 4 of 7 - Take Every Thought Captive

Part 1 - Introduction
Part 3 - Read the Word

If you had the opportunity to listen to Jesus, what would you do? That’s not as clear-cut an answer as many of us would think. For example Peter—when given the opportunity to see Jesus in transfiguration and listen to God from Heaven—instantly distracted himself by asking questions (Mark 9:6).  Martha of Bethany likewise had the opportunity not just to hear from Jesus, but to have him in her house, and yet she distracted herself with much serving (Luke 10:40).

We do have the opportunity to listen to Jesus every Sunday, indeed every day, but many of us—nay all—distract ourselves in any number of ways. In order to be a better listener we need to, like Martha’s sister Mary, choose the good portion of listening to the Lord (Luke 10:41-42).

This is a cognizant decision we must make. I recently attended a conference where Richard Blackaby spoke, amid other points he warned ministers not to be so busy that they don’t get anything done. He mentioned a man who worked for him who was always running around in a tizzy. After some time Blackaby took stock of what the busy man actually did, and there was not a quantifiable level of work to justify keeping him as an employee. Blackaby sort-of-joked, but also very seriously quipped, that he could not afford to employ someone who kept so busy.

Many of us run into church this way, consumed with getting children and ourselves just perfect on the outside, making plans for lunch, making plans for dinner, trying to apply the sermon even before its preached, interacting with the nursery via text, updating social media with profound pastoral quotes, and just plain letting our minds wander.

There are two kinds of distraction in this world: Those you can correct and those you can’t.

If you are constantly distracted by the kid who sits in front of you, then do yourself a favor and correct that distraction by sitting in front of him. Last I checked, the front row is almost always open. Do your phone notifications break your concentration? Turn it off or leave it in the car. Is it too cold in the auditorium? Bring a jacket or talk to your friendly maintenance staff. That reminds me, maybe the distraction can be fixed, but not under your power. If it’s distracting you, it’s distracting others. Is the woman doing interpretive dance and playing her tambourine distracting from you concentrating on the Word of God? You need to talk to her, then the church leaders, and then maybe you need to find another church if the preaching of the Word is not central. Are cell phones always going off or people always coming in and out? Ask church leaders to address it from the pulpit: very few people in church are purposefully trying to steal your attention.

But, sometimes there are distractions you can’t fix. We recently had an electrical ground fail which induced a nasty feedback loop into our projector. During the entire time the projector was on it slowly scrolled a yellow line across the presentation. It’s fixed now, but over the months that it was present was the congregation excused from being attentive to the Word of God because they could not take that distraction captive? No, this is why Paul said not to take every distraction captive, but every thought!

Determine to remove as many distractions as you feasibly can, both for your sake and for the sake of your church. But also determine to be so attentive to God’s Word that even if distractions arise, they will not cause you to miss the good portion.

Identify that all distractions are transient but the things of God are eternal and you will focus on what is honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, excellent, and praiseworthy!

Part 5 - Take Notes

Biblical Marriage Counseling

Years ago, completely inundated and flustered and frustrated with the ridiculousness that passes for “Christian” and “Biblical” Marriage counseling, I wrote the following on the simplest form of biblical marriage counseling:

Husband: Love your wife.
Wife: Respect your husband.
Which of you is not doing that?
Repent and start doing that.
End of counseling session.
No charge.

Many people were irate when I first wrote that and many undoubtedly will be irate today. It defies human wisdom and the vast majority of academia. Spurgeon said, “Men think themselves wiser than the Word of the Lord, and sit in judgment upon it.” Denying the simplicity of the godly wisdom of Ephesians 5:33 gives an excuse for those who have been to “biblical counseling” who are no better today than when they started, and often are worse. They think it’s not their fault, it’s not their counselor’s fault, but it is the failure of God’s Word.

And that’s a symptom of the current culture because most of what passes as biblical counseling is not biblical. One counselee described it, “it felt like those sessions were just scheduled times for my wife to blame me for all my faults.” Counselors get mired in symptoms and definitions and techniques and fail to teach the most basic tenets of biblical marriage. The feminization of pastoral counseling and chasing after the wind of secular counseling has resulted in a plethora of excuses and finger pointing.

Dan Phillips recently put it this way,

Q: What should be the consequences of a husband not loving his wife?
A: Fry his hind end, because it's all his fault.
Q: What should be the consequences of a wife not respecting her husband?
A: Fry his hind end, because it's all his fault.
#TheDiscussionThusFar

The Bible does not give the wife an option to stop respecting her husband because he is not respectable (see 1 Peter 3:1-2), nor does the husband have the option to stop loving his wife because she is unlovable (see Eph 5:25, Rom 5:8). And, despite what so many feminized counselors would say, don’t think that love means nice. Love means sacrifice and sanctification (see Rev 3:19).

It reminds me of one of my favorite parables which I have retold many times and expanded upon,

A wife, completely embittered and exasperated by her marriage, visits a divorce lawyer to explore her options. She spends the session explaining to the lawyer everything her husband has done wrong and why he has made her so miserable for so many years. She concludes by stating, “I want this divorce to hurt him as much as he has hurt me.” 

The lawyer, a devout feminist, with malice in her eyes responds, “Here’s what you need to do. Don’t tell your husband about the divorce for the next month. Over the next month we’re going to show him how great a woman he is losing, and we’ll really make his head spin when we take not just the kids, the house, and his pension, but his excellent wife as well. Here’s what you need to do:

• Everytime he does something hurtful don’t respond in kind.
• Everytime he does something thoughtful make sure you show your appreciation.
• Everytime he is a bad father hold your tongue and take that opportunity to love your kids.
• Everytime he is a good father make sure to notice and verbalize your approval to the kids.
• Everytime he misses an appointment or a dinner because of work, thank him for providing.
• Everytime he makes an appointment or a dinner, thank him for making time for the family.
• Everytime he fails to help around the house, step up and be his helper.
• Everytime he helps around the house notice it and thank him for his aid.
• Everytime he kisses you goodbye, kiss him back.
• Everytime he doesn’t kiss you goodbye, kiss him hello when he comes back.
• Everytime he forgets to pray for you, pray for him.
• Everytime he prays for you, thank him for his spiritual leadership.
• Everytime he says something stupid, discuss the topic with him.
• Everytime he says something profound, commend his wisdom.
• Etcetera: You get the point. 

The month goes by, then another month, and the lawyer starts to wonder. She calls her client and asks, “When are you going to come in to start the divorce?”

“Divorce?! I’m not divorcing him! Why would I divorce him? He’s the greatest husband and father in the world!”

Love begets respect and respect begets love. A lack of the one does not justify withholding the other.

Husband: love your wife. She doesn’t respect you? Love her anyways.

Wife: respect your husband. He doesn’t love you? Respect him anyways.

End of article.

No charge.

Listen Better - Part 3 of 7 - Read the Word

Part 1 - Introduction
Part 2 - Pray Before the Sermon

Speaking to a rebellious people who were inquiring why God had not blessed their rituals and their efforts, Zechariah identifies their problem:

“They made their hearts diamond-hard lest they should hear the law and the words that the LORD of hosts had sent by his Spirit through the former prophets.” ~ Zechariah 7:12

(Zechariah doesn’t identify exactly which prophets they were ignoring, but definitely Isaiah’s chapter 58 is one of them)

As you attend church on Sunday morning hopefully you will hear a pastor open the Word of God and proclaim the excellencies of the King to you. But how will you know? For the last 70 years the people of Bethel had been listening to tradition tell them to fast in remembrance of the destruction of the temple and for God’s blessing. For the entire time they had been in sin; the sin of elevating man’s tradition to God’s commands, and in refusing to listen to the former prophets.

How could they possibly know that they were following tradition and rejecting God’s Word? If only God had sent prophets beforehand to declare God’s statutes…

Are you following tradition? Is your pastor preaching his own opinions or the opinions of those who came before him? I recently read a Warren Wiersbe book called 50 People Every Christian Should Know, and, while I like Wiersbe (especially his biographical works), many of the 50 on the list were famous people of his early life who preached their own opinions and traditions. Were they good communicators and visionaries in their fields? Absolutely, but should we emulate them? By no means. A disciple of Phillips Brooks would be astonished today that you don’t know who Phillips Brooks is, but I guarantee you’ve been influenced by his tradition of emphasizing the preacher’s personality over the preaching.

So, how do you know if you’re listening to tradition or God’s Word?

You have to know God’s Word, you have to interact with it, wrestle with it, digest it, and apply it.

Before you head to church next time, find out which passage your pastor is going to be preaching on, and read it at least a few hours before (or better, if you're not reading this article on Sunday morning, every day until the sermon). God’s Spirit will use the former prophets (in the case of my church, Mark’s Gospel) to speak to you and in reading the passage before you hear it preached you will be more prepared to understand and respond to what you hear.

Mayhaps God will show you something he does not show your pastor, or maybe your pastor will reinforce conviction that you received from the Word, or perhaps he will answer questions you had in reading. Maybe you’ll see a connection in God’s Word that helps to reinforce what you believe and what you’re learning. Scripture is full of cross-references and quotations, for example, reread Zechariah 7:11-12 and then go read Hebrews 1:1-2 and Romans 15:4 and see if you don’t see some parallels and some amazing grace as you see the continuing theme of Christ in all of scripture (by the way, read 2 Timothy 3:16-17 as well!)

Regardless of how the Spirit is going to use it in your life, you will be better for knowing God’s Word and you are sure to understand it better from your pastor if you read it before you hear him preach it.

Part 4 - Take Every Thought Captive

Listen Better - Part 2 of 7 - Pray Before the Sermon

Part 1 - Introduction

Unless God opens your heart to receive his Word, then nothing you do will help.

Blunt, but true: It is imperative that we realize that hearing God’s Word is a grace all in itself. Many people are precluded from hearing God’s Word and the ways are myriad; some have no access to or knowledge that the Word even exists, some are under direct legislation outlawing the reading of the Bible, others have ministers who refuse to preach God’s Word in lieu of their own opinions, and yet others sit under the preaching of God’s Word, but their ears are closed and their hearts are hard.

Adrian Rogers lamented,

The Devil would just as soon send you to Hell from the pew—as from the gutter!

Therefore, one of the primary things we must do to be hearers of God’s Word is to humble ourselves to realize our need for salvation, and that if Jesus is the only way, and if we are saved by faith, and if faith comes by hearing, then we must drastically entreat God to open our ears to his Word.

The Psalmist prayed,

“Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law.” ~Psalm 119:18

If God doesn’t answer then the most prestigious Bible training in the world will leave you in darkness and despair, so seek him for this grace!

Besides the obvious necessity of praying that God would make us better listeners, it also invests us in the preaching of the Word and prepares the soil of our hearts to hear. Charles Spurgeon wisely identified that the parable of the soils identifies many soils, but only one seed,

Which, do you think needs the most preparation, the sower or the ground? I would have the sower come with clean hands, but I would have the ground well-plowed and harrowed, well-turned over, and the clods broken before the seed comes in. It seems to me that there is more preparation needed by the ground than by the sower, more by the hearer than by the preacher.

And we ought not pray only for ourselves, but for our preacher that he may bring the Word in power from the Holy Spirit, and for our fellow listeners that the Word will accomplish in them exactly what God intends for it to accomplish. This investment in preparing to hear God’s Word adds the blessing that then we will work and hope and expect God to work not just in our own hearts, but in the hearts of those we’ve prayed for.

Won’t you pray for your heart, your pastor, and your church before you next hear God’s Word preached, and ever after until you are in the very presence of your Saviour?

Part 3 - Read the Word

Listen Better - Part 1 of 7 - Introduction

I recently launched my doctoral project to make the church better at listening to God’s Word. Nearly three years of research has gone into this project and it has been a blessing—to say the least—to delve both into God’s Word and into the writings and sermons of great saints who have addressed this same topic.

Did you know there are more commands in God’s Word to listen well than to preach well? And yet we have erected entire seminaries devoted to teaching people how to preach and have largely neglected the importance of listening well.

If you consider a real flock of sheep, there are many sheep but a single pastor. The pastor has many tools to shepherd his flock: his voice, a rod and/or staff, a sheepdog or a donkey, well-worn paths, etc. The sheep on the other hand are called to listen to their pastor and to discern his voice from any number of competing voices.

So, beloved, how do you listen? Do you hear the voice of your shepherd? Can you discern his voice from one that sounds very similar? I’m not talking about the voice of your earthly pastor, I’m talking about the Overseer of your soul. Martin Luther put it this way,

The right sort of preacher should faithfully and diligently preach nothing but the Word of God and seek His glory and honor alone. The hearer likewise should say, ‘I do not believe in my pastor, but he tells me of another Lord whose name is Christ; Him he declares unto me, and I will listen to his words so far as he leads me to this true master and preceptor, God’s own Son.’[1]

This article and the subsequent six articles are my attempt to make you a better listener to God’s Word. I have condensed all that I have learned into six principles (I followed the template of Joel Beeke to break them into Before, During, and After the Sermon), there are many, many other ways you can become a better listener and nearly infinite nuances to the six I have chosen, but I believe strongly that if you attempt these six in the way they are written, you will see an improvement in your own hearing.

I would appreciate your feedback and encouragement or discouragement as you work through these six principles. Comments may be left anonymously, or long replies may be sent to canyon.shearer@gmail.com or via telephone: e-mail for my phone number.

May you be blessed in the hearing of God’s Word, for faith comes by hearing, and hearing through the Word of Christ (Romans 10:17).

By the way, step 3, taking every thought captive, definitely addresses not letting your attention to God’s Word be stolen by errors or even outright sins of the preacher, so in case you see the typo, don’t let it detract from the spiritual lessons of the card. (Who knows, maybe I put that typo there on purpose to teach you a vital lesson!)

Thus concludes
Part 1 - Introduction

Continue reading:
Part 2 - Pray Before the Sermon
Part 3 - Read the Word
Part 4 - Take Every Thought Captive
Part 5 - Take Notes
Part 6 - Revisit the Sermon
Part 7 - Apply the Sermon

---

[1]Sidney Greidanus, Preaching Christ from the Old Testament: a Contemporary Hermeneutical Method (Grand Rapids, Mich.: W.B. Eerdmans Pub., 1999), 123.

A Good Wife Is Like an Island - Husband's Devotional

I recently read the biography of Samuel Zwemer, missionary to Iraq/Bahrain/Arabia/Egypt. He was blessed with a faithful and helpful wife, Amy, for four decades. On the occasion of her death he wrote a beautiful poem comparing her love to an island in the vast sea of life. At the outset I thought it was cliché and—while touching—just another phrase that meant little…but then Samuel compared the island of her love to a haven, and I had to read it again.

Her love was like an island
In life’s ocean vast and wide
A peaceful quiet shelter
from the wind and rain and tide 

‘Twas bound on the North by Hope
By Patience on the West
By Tender Counsel on the South
On the East I rest 

Above it, like a beacon light
Shone faith and truth and prayer
And through the changing scenes of life
I found a haven there.

I read his homage on an airplane as we were banking over the coast of Texas/Louisiana, and I had a beautiful view of the barrier islands there. It made me think of the many varieties of islands in the world. Some are trivial and can be easily inundated by the tides or the storms of life, others are completely inhospitable. I was reminded of the hideous island in William Golding’s book, The Pincher Martin, with its razor-sharp rocks, poisonous water, and treacherous crevasses. I thought of Sentinel Island in the Indian Ocean, inhabited by a murderous people who have no patience to tolerate any outsiders on their beaches.

But then I thought of some of the fantastic islands of the world, such as the one in Goldings’s book, The Lord of the Flies, or the Hawaiian Islands, or Nantucket & Martha’s Vineyard which stand firm and provide ample protection against the winds and the waves—you might call them paradise, even, as many have.

It made me think of my relationship with my wife. If she’s honest would she call me a haven or a peril? Does she find safety and resoluteness against the world’s upheaval or does she find the ground shifting, unpredictable, and unstable?

Is she my help as I journey through life’s sorrows and as sea billows roll? Do we encourage each other to rest on the anchor of Christ and his Word together, and thus find solid footing, a firm foundation, amidst the crashing waves and hurtling wind together?

The Proverbs are clear that there are spouses who are worse than no spouse at all. *Spoiler Alert* The Pincher Martin makes this point startlingly well when you realize the nightmare that the main character experienced for months was all an illusion, and that the man had—in fact—died in the shipwreck. */End Spoiler Alert/* Reading that book as a young man rocked me to the core: which was preferred, death or a hellish salvation?

Samuel Zwemer turned that epiphany towards Heaven. Am I a paradise to my wife and she to me? Or would we have been better off to drift through this life alone?

Along the same lines, Jimmy Buffet wrote something very profound when he spoke of One Particular Harbor, a place of peace, tranquility, and contentedness. For many in this world that harbor is a literal place, a favorite beach, locale, real-estate, house, or property. Before becoming a Christian I referred to both my car, and my motorcycle, as “My1Hrbr”, and went so far as to request that vanity license plate (it was taken). But beloved, how much better is that harbor when it is a person—the wife of your youth, her alone—you blessed in her companionship, and her secure in yours?

I am resolved to provide that haven for my wife, to be a safe and hospitable island for her, and to serve Jesus with her and encourage her to continue resting on Christ the solid rock. His anchor holds within the veil, and I thank God for this opportunity to serve him with my wife, my one particular harbor.

Lord, May we together make the name of Jesus famous like Samuel and Amy Zwemer. Amen.

An American and a Lebanese man go to a Mexican Restaurant in Germany

I continue to not believe in coincidences, I believe God puts us exactly where he intends when he intends. I recently missed a connecting flight due to weather and was the recipient of a nine hour lay-over. I knew that God would somehow use that layover to his glory and so I prayed fervently to be an obedient servant.

I recently read the biography of Brother Andrew, and while I admire his boldness, his “derry-doo”, and his consistency, the constant mysticism of the book wore on me. Simply defined, Andrew’s mysticism frequently told him to go to embassies for visas, call a certain young lady, and visit specific people. That is not the way we hear from God and, while I don’t doubt Andrew’s veracity for a moment, I think such writing leads others to wonder why God is not speaking so specifically and accurately to them. That said, on my rescheduled connecting flight just after takeoff I had the very definite mystical feeling that I would not survive the flight. It was creepy to say the least, and it led to an excellent time of prayer including confession, commitment of my family to God’s sovereign care, and an inventory of my ministry and affections.

Needless to say, I survived the flight and my feeling was not a premonition from God. But I determined to redeem my layover, and indeed my entire trip for the glory of God. Landing in Frankfurt I purchased a train ticket to the city centre, I missed the first train by seconds and had to wait twelve minutes for the next. It is nice to know when the end of a public sermon is coming for the sake of time and brevity and clarity, and so I waited until a crowd formed on the platform for the next train and, using a tactic of Brother Andrew, I gave them greetings from the United States and from the Kingdom of Heaven. When the train arrived I was less than thrilled with the response, but several dozen people heard the gospel and then boarded the train.

Arriving at the city centre I was impressed with the city planning and the beautiful small parks throughout, but there were no crowds, so I made my way towards a Frankfurt landmark I recognized from somewhere, a beautiful round glass building. To my surprise and happiness I also found the river, which has a long meandering park on either side of its bank. I walked a few hundred yards until I found people lounging on the grass in any direction, and I preached on the authority of the Christian to preach and the imperative of the hearer to be reconciled to God from 2 Corinthians 5. While many listened, I was again disappointed with the response.

I knew I could spend the entire day on this expanse of river so I walked down about a half mile until I found a large crew unloading trucks into a large pleasure yacht for what looked like a sizeable and expensive party. I set up facing the yacht in hopes that my voice would echo from the yacht for greater distance. As I preached many stopped to listen, and as I finished my new friend Thorsten Winters approached from the newspaper and asked if he could ask me some questions. On the plane I literally had just read Albert Mohler’s wisdom on the broadcast power of the news media. Not only had my voice echoed off the yacht, but it was also going to reverberate from a newspaper! See Thorsten's Article Here. After a quite pleasant conversation I decided I would find something to eat then continue my circuit down the river.

But as I came up into the city centre again I found a beautiful park that has the largest metal EU (European Union) logo I’ve ever seen firmly posted on stilts at the entrance. There were Japanese tourists, Chinese tourists, Arabic tourists, and many locals drawn to that giant logo. The park was crowded so I started to look for my best location, when I noticed a beautiful little hill almost directly at the center. As I ascended the mount I was pleased to note that the wind would at my back if I was facing the largest concentration of people and thus carry my voice over the crowd.

As I preached the response was what every open-air preacher hopes for. Everyone turned their attention towards me, passers by stopped walking and sat on benches or in the grass. At least three listeners started to record the sermon. I preached on peace with the Kingdom of Heaven, and after I called for repentance and faith I thanked the recorders for recording the sermon and encouraged them to watch it again later and post it to the internet. I concluded that I would love to have a reasoned conversation with anyone who would like to and that I had approximately four hours to catch my flight. A group of four middle-eastern college aged young men who I thought at first were hostile to the preaching all gave me enthusiastic thumbs ups.

I considered heading over to them when a young man named Eddins waved and called me to speak with him. Eddins was in his mid-20s and spoke English quite well, I expected him to be hostile because his first question was what I thought of the United States Army. But he was ready for a reasoned conversation and we both agreed that the lack of faith in the United States Army has led to terrible outcomes. A young Christian jumped into the conversation and encouraged me for the sermon but also rebuked me to spend more time forming relationships. I half laughed and said, “Brother, I have nine hours to preach to this whole city.” He saw my point and I encouraged him to keep building relationships and preaching the gospel and that faith comes through hearing and hearing the Word of Christ.

Eddins professed to be a Muslim, but admitted that he had not found time to read the Koran. We spent quite a bit of time on textual criticism of both the Bible and the Koran. He said he found the Koran too hard and deep to understand, to which I responded that the Koran itself claims to be a light and perspicuous book. We both agreed that it is not. I helped him to understand that the Bible we are reading today is the Bible that was originally written thousands of years ago. He seemed pleased but didn’t want to let the conversation go, so I invited him to lunch (it was now dinner time).

As we were eating I did form a relationship with him, talking about his upbringing and his career and his aspirations, all the while answering and discussing the things of God. He told me that the name Eddins is a variation of Adam, but that he did not know why his parents had named him that because he had no family members named Eddins. I took him to the story of Zechariah naming his son Johannes despite having no ancestral precedent for it, but that God would be gracious to John in the future. I asked Eddins what he knew about Adam and he knew the story of the fall, then I asked him about the Second Adam, of whom he did not know that was a title of Isa, the Christ. I implied that perhaps his parents had named him Eddins on God’s promptings so that someday he would put his hope in the Second Eddins.

It was then that Eddins told me he was supposed to leave Frankfurt the day prior but his bus had broken down, and that he had been sitting in the park wondering how he would spend his afternoon before his bus left at the same time I needed to get on a train for the airport. He was very pleased that we had met and he told me he didn’t think it was a coincidence.

I don’t think it was a coincidence either. Pray for my friend Eddins!

Church Nursery Help for Inconsolable Children

We made this video to help church nursery workers console young children who are missing their parents and who need some reassurance that they'll be back, and that their emotions are understood.

If this song doesn't help then there is much more work to be done, consider a previous article, Pay Attention to Your Kids!

Please send any feedback, helps, or questions!

Pay Attention to Your Kids!

One of the most unexpectedly beneficial books I have read is called How to Talk so Little Kids Will Listen by Joanna Faber. It is far from a biblical book, but it makes the point that many meltdowns from toddlers come from feeling not listened to and not being able to communicate.

That leads into this article, that one of the most important things we can do in our lives and for our children is focus our attention. I’m writing this article in the solitude of a café waiting for my next meeting at work, my attention is focused on writing. Human beings, despite our pride, are not—and never will be—good at multitasking. When I’m teaching or playing with my kids I make every attempt to be there fully, not pulled between work or my phone or writing. I recently attended an online conference for work and at several points I had to lock the door to the office because by dividing my attention between kids running in and the speaker on the screen led to both getting far less than even 50% of my attention.

Attention is so important in my life that I’m writing a dissertation on teaching it to the church. My primary text is Nehemiah 8, “And the ears of all the people were attentive to the Book of the Law…Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people…and as he opened it all the people stood.” Long story short, the best way to hear God is by really being attentive to his Word, to remove distractions, and to realize the value in hearing, responding to, and applying it. This is reiterated over and over throughout the Bible, many preachers have pointed out that they have seminary degrees in preaching, but no-one ever receives a degree in listening, when the Bible teaches much more on listening than preaching (Boice, Piper, MacArthur, etc). Jesus said, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear (Luke 8:8).”

The importance of undivided attention cannot be overstated when listening to the Word of God. But that is not the only place you should learn to focus your attention. When interacting with people it is important as well. A child who doesn’t feel listened to is a child who is prone to feel out of control, unloved, and hopeless. Try it the next time you have a temper tantrum, hold the child until they are calm, then work through what they wanted and see if you can’t figure out how they were asking for it. 

One of the greatest joys in our life was the day, not so long ago, when our twins learned to buckle their own car seats. This is only partial hyperbole, it truly is a burden lifted not to always be climbing into the back of the car to latch them in. On Wednesday my attentive wife pulled out of the driveway and Titus cried out, “Oh no! You’re driving!” and proceeded to lose his little mind. It took a few moments but my wife encouraged him to use his words and all he could get out was, “I’m going to die!” A little more prodding and she discovered that, “I’m not buckled!” She was then able to pull over and get the troublesome latch buckled and he did not, in fact, die.

Now, being attentive to your spouse, your kids, your coworkers, and your Saviour can play out in a million ways and I’m not going to try to—nor could I—give you an authoritative list of do’s and don’ts. But I will give you a couple and some principles.

Notice in Nehemiah 8 the full attention of the people led them to “stand up” when the Word was read. This was not, as some have surmised, “out of respect for the reading of God’s Word”, this was to focus their attention on what they were about to do. Always stop what you’re doing when something worthy of your attention arises. 

Always stand up when greeting someone, always put your phone down when someone asks you a question, pause your podcast and remove your headphones (both!) if you need to speak to someone, close out your last conversation/project before starting the next one. Don't be easily distracted from an important task or conversation.

My two-year-old is in the “Come with/Come see” stage and she lifts her little hand up and squeezes to say grab my hand! I don’t want to squash that in the least so I happily grab her hand and go see. Just because it might not be groundbreaking to me doesn’t mean it’s not important to her, and I want to be involved in her growth and let her know that I pay attention to what is important to her.

So, beloved, take every opportunity to be focusing your attention, reject multi-tasking, and love your kids by listening to them and participating in their lives.

A Brief Thought on Children's Devotionals

When it comes to children’s devotions or books on the Bible there are no lack of options, but unfortunately, finding a good one is a difficult task. Charles Spurgeon said, “It does seem to me as if some people say, ‘Here is a place of worship. There is sure to be a sermon, let us go in and hear it.’ Ah! but all that is preached is not Gospel and it is not all hearing that will be valuable to your souls.” It does seem to me that many people say, “Here is an illustrated book on the Bible for children, let’s open it and learn some truth.” But not all that is drawn or paraphrased is Gospel and not all children’s books are valuable for your children’s souls!

I'm writing this post to encourage you in my three favorite resources, and to warn you against one of the most popular.

The One Year Bible for Children – V. Gilbert Beers

First, by far the best from an under-10 year-old standpoint is The NLT One Year Bible for Children by V. Gilbert Beers. This is an illustrated book working through the Bible in chronological order over one year, it lays a good foundation of Bible stories and most importantly it continues to tell the Bible story in one contiguous narrative. Quotations are taken directly from the Bible and I’ve yet to find a devotion that was not biblical.

The illustrations are phenomenal, and I don’t use that word lightly. Even if you don’t have children I’d recommend this book purely from an artistic value. When Joshua led the Israelites across the Jordan River bed the painting clearly depicts dry dust coming up from the feet of those crossing. This level of detail is one that is repeated in many of the stories. It’s not my intention to tell you all of the awesome paintings in this book, but be sure there are many that will astonish you.

The application in the Old Testament is sometimes lacking, but the stories are always faithfully told. Many times the quality of the story has taken us to places that a wooden application would have constrained us in. For example, yesterday’s devotion was on the men who stayed back with the baggage when David destroyed the Amalekites. The application mentioned nothing about the different members of the body or the different members of the church or different roles we all fulfill, but that’s where we went and had an entertaining and beneficial conversation about if we were made up of only eyes or ears or feet.

The greatest failing is that Jesus is almost always left out of the Old Testament. Especially in the story of the Bronze Serpent lifted up by Moses I though that Beers should have at least mentioned that the story was quoted in John 3. I could almost defend him however, that maybe he is considering that if children know the Old Testament reference then when they are reading the New Testament they will draw their own connections instead of being explicitly told about it.

So, I recommend this book with the caveat that you need to be prepared to share the application or at least help your children flesh out the Gospel story. Each lesson is short, ten minutes or less, but the quality of the content makes it beneficial if you only read it to your children, or if that reading leads into a much deeper conversation.

Long Story Short – Marty Machowski

The second devotional I recommend is Long Story Short by Marty Machowski. This book is for older kids, I’d say this one really works for kids over five, and that might be a tad too young. Long Story Short takes a single narrative and spends five days fleshing it out. This really drives the point of the story home and adds on it every day.

Parents, where this book is not easy is that you can’t just pick it up and go, it requires some preplanning and some sort of preparation. For example, one lesson requires you to have a trumpet or a kazoo (or anywhere in between) to blow at the walls of Jericho. I found this out after we started reading that particular devotional and had to scramble to make something work. Of course, the kids loved the trumpet played in the house and trying to make it make noise itself, but if you’re looking for a book you can just pick up at the end of the day and let it do all of the work, this book will not work for you.

I love the idea of this book and the depth, but I think five days is too long for a children’s devotional. When we pick it back up in a year or two we’ll modify it a bit, either compressing each story into three days, or intertwining them so that it’s not always the same story.

However, the emphasis on the Gospel is wonderful and it introduces children to the depth of Bible study in a way that is both fun, engaging, and most importantly, memorable.

Built Upon the Rock – Brooke Snyder

My third favorite is Built Upon the Rock: Devotions for the First Years by Dr. Brooke Snyder. Now, I have to confess that Dave and Brooke Snyder are dear friends of ours and our copy is not only signed, but was a gift. But, it is also masterfully written and comes with a passion for child rearing that is not manufactured just to write a book, but because the Snyder’s truly love their children and want them to know Jesus, and want to help you help your children known Jesus.

Built Upon the Rock is written on the premise that we don’t want there ever to be a time in our child’s life where they did not hear the name of Jesus in the home, or know the power of the Gospel.

Unlike the other two books, this is not a yearly devotional, but a collection of great ideas to teach deep spiritual truths to growing minds. However, Brooke identifies that if you take one devotional a week, it will cover a year. It has been several years since I read this book, and in writing this it has spurred me to read it again, but the truly important thing that I have taken away from this book is that you are never too young to be building a spiritual foundation.

Recently my kids were playing with playdough and because of this book I though it would be a great time to consider spiritual things. We grabbed a rock of similar size to a lump of playdough and took turns trying to form the rock and the playdough into something. Readily enough my kids learned the meaning of a malleable heart. But then we took that playdough and pulled it in every direction and learned why being too pliable, pulled around by every influence, is bad as well.

While I don’t think this is a devotion from the book, the idea of it certainly came from Brooke’s influence in my life, and for that reason I’ll be forever grateful.

In order to set your heart, dear parent, on spiritual training of your children, I recommend this book to you.

The Jesus Storybook Bible – Sally Lloyd-Jones

Arguably the most influential children’s devotional of recent times is The Jesus Storybook Bible: Every Story Whispers His Name by Sally Lloyd-Jones. This is one of my least favorite devotionals, and one I want to caution you from reading to your children.

First, though, the Jesus Storybook Bible does make a very good point that Jesus can be found in every story of the Bible. I know at least one person who has been deeply helped by this point and I am glad for that.

Second, some of the details are very useful, especially the mention of the little girl of 2 Kings 5:2 who sent Naaman to God's man for help. There are gleanings from this devotional.

However, the most important thing about this book is that it is NOT a Bible. It makes no effort to follow the biblical dialogue and regularly injects unbiblical language. Second, it is far from exhaustive, it spends a lot of time in the Pentateuch and a spackling through the prophets, but then BAM, you’re in the New Testament without any mention of the Bible that has been left out.

But most importantly, Sally Lloyd-Jones has arguably ridden into the lime-light on the power and credibility of her last name. Only recently has there been any discernible effort to make the distinction that she bears ZERO relation to Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones. Her theology, her writing, and her understanding of the Gospel fall far short of the Doctor.

Cody Libolt has written a masterful argument about this devotional and that the main theme of God’s glory, grace, and wrath is utterly missing from Lloyd-Jones’ book. I encourage you to read his article called, The Core Theme of the Jesus Storybook Bible is Wrong.

The Bible

Finally, I know more than one family who have opted to read from the source itself, the Bible, to teach children. Beloved, I think there is great wisdom in this, but also a great danger. The first time I tried to read the Bible I was sixteen and started in Genesis 1. I don’t think I got past about Genesis 5 before setting it down. Why? Because I was not spiritually discerned. Neither are our children. Keep that in mind as you take them through the Bible, they aren’t able or interested in knowing the nuances of who begot who or who married who or the exegetical jewels of the book of Leviticus, or the intricacies of eschatology.

My five year old, three year olds, and two year old don’t like steak. It blows my mind, if I cut it up really fine like it’s hamburger then they’ll eat it, but my five year old recently told her grandmother, “I don’t like steak, my daddy likes steak, but I don’t like steak.” She even made a terrible face to drive the point home...Thank God for her candor. My two year old, on the other hand, practically lives off of milk. She drinks so much milk you’d think she was a calf. This is exacerbated by the fact that she recently learned to fill up her own cup.

Conclusion

So, as you’re teaching your kids from the Bible or a devotional, keep in mind that the most beautiful fillet mignon of a Bible study served up to a toddler is going to end up picked at, discarded, and asking for a snack later. Whether you're cutting up the Bible yourself so that your kids can digest it, or you're hiring someone to help you, keep in mind that children think like children, so teach them in a way that they can grasp but that points them to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

I like The One Year Bible, Long Story Short, and Built Upon the Rock because they have served up the Bible in small bite-size chunks for your kids to digest, enjoy, and move towards those meaty studies that will come later in their lives.