Satan is Active in Your Ministry

Christian ministers and pastors must always keep in mind that the active power and subtlety of Satan is always working against their ministry. Something lost in the minds of America’s pastors is the realization that Satan is very active in the world and the culture in which they are striving to minister. He is active, many times, within the very walls of their church and ministry. The powers of darkness are working in every sphere of Christian ministry. Unceasingly Satan moves about like a subtle serpent in the grass in all manners of ministry and the work of Christ.

His influence in the church are very evident in many areas:

1. There is often a general inattention to the Word of God and the message being preached. You can look down from the pulpit and see an evident listlessness in the congregation giving no thought to the words being proclaimed.

2. There is a blindness of men to the glory of the Savior in their thoughts and concern about eternity. There is a general apathy in the church today concerning the things of eternity. Satan gradually sets our minds and hearts on the things of this world getting our minds to focus less on eternal matters.

3. He stirs up a natural enmity of the heart in the followers of Christ. Stirring up enmity within Christ’s body is one of Satan’s greatest pleasures. Beware. Watch.

4. He covers his spiritual wiles with some new and pleasing doctrines. This is evident within the church today. New doctrines arise to cover the guise of “the father of lies”. For example, if Satan can get a church concerned about a new pragmatic scheme he can draw their attention away from the Word of God.

5. In the church Satan “transforms himself into an angel of light”. He causes the church to create idols of self-righteousness and dependence upon self.

6. In the heart of individual Christians Satan plants subtle traces of unbelief, wandering of the heart in prayer, spiritual pride, and worldliness.

It is easier not to speak of Satan. It is less controversial to preach on his wicked schemes and subtle advances. It is less shocking to mention hell and the powers of darkness. However, it is necessary that all ministers, who are serious about ministry and the Kingdom of Christ, to warn their people with all diligence about the schemes of the Devil. We must teach our people how to properly defend themselves against the onslaught of Satan and his workers of iniquity. Show your people how he works in the church and have them be on guard and watching every moment lest he slither his way into the pew and set up a home.

Filed under: Ministry, Satan

Heaven, A World of Love

Preaching on the subject of heaven and love, Jonathan Edwards said, “In heaven this desire of love, or this fondness for being loved, will never fail of being satisfied. No inhabitants of that blessed world will ever be grieved with the thought that they were slighted by those that they love, or that their love is not fully and fondly returned.”

There is a deep desire in everyone to love, and in loving, for that love to be returned. We can love a great many things in this life that do not reciprocate that love back to us. We can love a car, a home, land, or any other material position but those things will never return the love. However, as Edwards describes, that will not be the case in that heavenly city. 

When someone loves and demonstrates the capacity to love there is also a fondness in that love being returned. There is nothing more devastating than to find that in loving someone that the love we give has never been returned. In heaven our “fondness” for being loved, “will never fail of being satisfied”. In demonstrating our love for God, Christ, the Holy Spirit, angels, and other saints, we will fully and completely have that love returned to us. Not only will that love be returned to us but we will not experience even the slightest hesitancy in the return. In other words, there will never be a moment where we think that the person we love is not returning that love to us in the most complete and fullest measure.

When love is not returned, whether in a marriage, friendship, or any other relationship, we are grieved. For example, we are grieved because of the time and effort invested in building a love relationship with someone. We are grieved because it may mean a friendship has come to an end. However, in that blessed city there will never be grief or sadness because the love we have shown has not been returned. Not only will love be returned in a full measure and with no hesitancy, but it will be “fully and fondly returned”. In other words, the person returning the love will return it with delight and joy. We will not sense reluctance in their love. The love will therefore be heightened because it will be mingled with delight and joy in its expression.

God has never failed to demonstrate his full and fond love upon his blessed children. The greatest expression of that love was demonstrated on the cross as he crushed his Son – all for the love of his children. That great expression of love will be the fountain head upon which all love will flow in heaven. The cross will be the well from which we dip as we express love in heaven.

If your love has never been returned in this world, if your love has not been appreciated with full joy and delight, if you grieve and are saddened because you think love shown to you is with great hesitancy, TAKE HEART! Heaven is a world of love from which you will experience, for all of eternity, love to its fullest extent and magnitude as we gaze and worship the One from whom all love originates and flows.

Filed under: Jonathan Edwards

Artistic Inspiration and the Beauty of God

Through the centuries Christians have created some of the most beautiful musical and artistic masterpieces in the history of the world. From the delicate intricacies of a flower to the splashes of color on a canvas, Christians have drawn their inspiration from the glory, beauty and majesty of a great and wonderful God. Yet, there is a question that arises in our minds. Where do Christians draw their inspiration and how does that translate into a masterpiece?

In his timely book, Art for God’s Sake, Philip Graham Ryken, pastor of Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania defines the role of the best art as a means to “satisfy our deep longing for beauty and communicate profound spiritual, intellectual, and emotional truth about the world that God has made for his glory”. As such, he challenges the Church to consider the importance of art as a reflection of the character of God. “The question becomes, therefore, not whether as Christians we will aspire to high aesthetic standards. All too often we settle for something that is functional, but not beautiful. We gravitate toward what is familiar, popular, or commercial, with little regard for the enduring values of artistic excellence…Ultimately this kind of art dishonors God because it is not in keeping with the truth and beauty of his character.”

Ryken gives the example from Exodus 31 which outlines God’s call on the lives of Bezalel and Oholiab, the craftsmen of the tabernacle, and provides a great foundation for discussing the attributes of Godly art and artists. Too many artists struggle for a secular concept of originality, instead of biblical craftsmanship. Ryken also affirms God’s pleasure in a wide variety of art and art forms. A consistent element among all Christian artists must be a reliance on a biblical standard and the application of these objective, absolute standards of beauty, truth, and goodness. He adeptly points out that an over-reliance on any of these three creates warped art. Art that is primarily pretty fails to deal with the reality of the truth of the world. Art that seeks to show the world in its sin fails to consider God’s goodness. Untempered goodness denies the fallen state of life. True beauty, truth, and goodness reflect the nature and character of God and the reality of a fallen world but also the great hope of the redemptive, transforming gospel. Biblically grounded art has the power to depict this ultimate reality.

Not just on the canvas or paper or in a musical instrument, but in all areas of life the Christian must draw their inspiration from their personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. Christian art flows from a brush that is driven by the desire and passion to see God’s glory displayed in a hurting and fallen world. Christian art flows from a brush that is driven with the objective reality of absolute truth, absolute beauty and biblical standards. It is in Christ’s beauty and loveliness that all of life shines and surely from Him we draw our true inspiration.

Filed under: Art, Book Recommendation, Culture

Weekly Interest – Links and Other Random Thoughts

Please find below a few links that I thought were interesting this week:

-  Dr. Albert Mohler writes: Why Moralism is Not the Gospel – And Why So Many Christians Think It Is

-  TNIV Going Off the Market, New Version of the NIV Coming in 2011

Response to the TNIV Announcement and the New NIV coming in 2011:

Dr. Ligon Duncan

Dr. Albert Mohler

-  John Piper lists 11 things that Paul did to undermine slavery – How Paul Worked to Overcome Slavery

-  Banner of Truth releases new book dealing with cancer – My God Is True! Lessons Learned Along Cancer’s Dark Road

Filed under: Albert Mohler, Banner of Truth, Book Recommendation, John Piper, Ligon Duncan, Links

Leave Out Everything Else

In a sermon series entitled The Life of Joy, Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, commenting on Phil. 1:10 (“that you may approve what is excellent,” or “that you may have a sense of what is vital”) said the following:

“The difficulty in life is to know on what we ought to concentrate. The whole art of life, I sometimes think, is the art of knowing what to leave out, what to ignore, what to put on one side. How prone we are to dissipate our energies and to waste our time by forgetting what is vital and giving ourselves to second and third rate issues. Now, says Paul, here you are in the Christian life, you are concerned about difficulties, about oppositions and about the contradictions of life. What you need is just this: the power to concentrate on that which is vital, to leave out everything else, and to keep steadily to the one thing that matters.”

Filed under: D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Quotes