Dwell On These Things

There is much talk today about meditation.  Bookstore shelves are filled to capacity with books on how to channel the mind in an empty promise to attain peace and tranquility through meditation.  Seeking the inner-self, finding ones-self, lifting our conscience to a higher plain; these are all used in today’s language in regard to meditation.

Dr. Albert Mohler has written an interesting article on the subject of medication entitled, “The Empty Promise of Meditation.” He writes of David:

In Psalm 119, David writes, “Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day. Your commandment makes me wiser than my enemies, for it is ever with me.” [Psalm 119:97] David’s meditation did not revolve around David, nor did it involve David trying to empty his mind into silence. He desperately wanted to hear from God, and he knew he would hear directly from God in the law. He studied the Scriptures in order to cleanse his mind of wrong thoughts and have them replaced with right thoughts and patterns of thinking.

Just as David had a deep desire to hear from God, it is imperative for Christians to meditate, but not in some sub-spiritual exercise that includes folded legs, candles lit, and soft humming but with a sincere desire to hear from God.  Christians are commanded to meditate on God’s Word.  In my reading this morning a verse from the

Filed under: Albert Mohler, Devotional, God, Holiness, The Christian Life

Prideful Pastors

In an age of success and a constant desire to be seen, heard, and recognized, the Christian minister is in danger of becoming filled with the sin of pride. Jonathan Edwards noted that spiritual pride is the main advantage Satan has over Christians. It is the secret flame of pride in the heart that the enemy feeds until it has become a raging and uncontrollable fire.

A pastor who is devoted to his calling is honored by God and acceptable to his people. Those who sit under his teaching of the Word of God and admonishment to grow as Christians admire his dedication to such a cause. A flock will love a pastor for his counsel, care, love, prayers, and total service to their spiritual and physical well being. However, it is often in this admiration that many are ready, as at Lystra, to “do sacrifice unto him.” To avoid this, Charles Bridges says in his book, The Christian Ministry, “What a large share of humility, what unceasing supply of Divine grace, is needed to resist a temptation, that falls in so powerfully with the selfish principle of the natural heart.”

Great care must be taken in the pastor’s heart and life to avoid the terrible temptation of pride. It is easy to be caught up in the emotion, successes, and popularity in ministry; especially when God is pouring fourth His blessing upon your church. But like watchmen upon the city walls, we must watch and pray unceasingly for this enemy approaching over the neighboring hills.

The great puritan Cotton Mather seemed to struggle with this temptation quite often in his early ministry. He says, “Apprehensions of pride – the sin of young ministers – working in my heart, filled me with inexpressible bitterness and confusion before the Lord. I found, that, when I met with enlargement in prayer or preaching, or answered a question readily and suitably, I was apt to applaud myself in my own mind. I affected pre-eminence above what belonged to my age or worth. I therefore endeavored to take a view of my pride – as the very image of the Devil, contrary to the grace and image of Christ – as an offence against God, and grieving of His Spirit – as the most unreasonable folly and madness for one, who had nothing singularly excellent, and who had a nature so corrupt – as infinitely dangerous, and ready to provoke God to deprive me of my capacities and opportunities.” Mather recognized spiritual pride in his heart from the beginning of his ministry. Do you congratulate yourself in your mind when there is large response to your sermons? Do you consider yourself better than others when people call upon you for advice and council? Have you thought God fortunate to have chosen you for a calling that only you can fill?

Mather continued with the resolution to his sin, “I therefore resolved to carry my distempered heart to be cured by Jesus Christ, that all-sufficient Physician – to watch against my pride – to study much the nature and aggravations of it, and the excellence of the contrary grace.” Even the best and most humble of pastors struggle with pride in various areas of their lives. If you have been bitten by the success bug of the new popularity mindset, apply the only vaccine that will heal the wound, namely, the balm of grace.

Filed under: Holiness, Jonathan Edwards, Ministry, Pastors, Sin, Temptation

John Witherspoon’s “Qualities of Most Importance” for the Minister

In his first sermon at Princeton John Witherspoon (1722-1794) affirmed as a certainty that ‘true religion in the heart is of far greater importance to the success and efficacy of the ministry than eminence or gifts’, and the same note ran through his teaching at Nassau Hall. He enlarged on it, for example, in his ‘Lectures on Eloquence’. He had no hesitation as to what ought to be at the head of the list of ‘the qualities of most importance’ for the preaching of the gospel:

1. Piety – To have a firm belief of that gospel he is called to preach, and a lively sense of religion upon his own heart…

2. It gives a man the knowledge that is of most service to a minister. Experimental knowledge is superior to all other, and necessary to the perfection of every other kind. It is indeed the very possession, or daily exercise of that which it is the business of his life, and the duty of his office, to explain and recommend. Experimental knowledge is the best sort in every branch, but it is necessary in divinity, because religion is what cannot be truly understood, unless it is felt.

3. True piety will direct a man in the choice of his studies. The object of human knowledge is so extensive, that nobody can go through the whole, but religion will direct the student to what may be most profitable to him, and will also serve to turn into its proper channel all the knowledge he may otherwise acquire.

4. It will be a powerful motive to diligence in his studies. Nothing so forcible as that in which eternity has a part. The duty to a good man is so pressing, and the object so important, that he will spare no pains to obtain success.

5. True religion will give unspeakable force to what a minister says. There is a piercing and penetrating heat in that which flows from the heart, which distinguishes it both from the coldness of indifference, and the false fire of enthusiasm and vain-glory. We see that a man is truly pious has often esteem, influence, and success, though his parts may be much inferior to others, who are more capable, but less conscientious. If, then, piety makes even the weakest venerable, what must it do when added to the finest natural talents, and the best acquired endowments?

6. It adds to a minister’s instruction, the weight of his example. It is a trite remark, that example teaches better than precept. It is often a more effectual reprimand to vice, and a more inciting argument to the practice of virtue, than the best of reasoning. Example is more intelligible than precept. Precepts are often involved in obscurity, or wrapped by controversy; but a holy life immediately reaches, and takes possession of the heart.

…observe, as the conclusion of the whole, that one devoted to the service of the gospel should be really, visibly, and eminently holy.

Filed under: Church History, Holiness, John Witherspoon, Ministry, Pastors, Princeton