Spiritual Warfare: When Satan Wants Your To Re-Live Your Past

One of the most common ways in which the dark lord attacks sinners in Christ is by making them re-live their past mistakes. He does this by bringing up memories (which we will discuss how he does so later) and tempts them to be entrapped by these memories like a caged animal. His tactics are to bring up an event or memory in which the saint-sinner is reminded of some particular sin that they have committed or even that which has been committed against them.

In the case of those who have sinned, the dark lord will tempt you to re-live the event as if you are on trial. He recruits you to be his co-prosecutor against your own soul. He paints God in such a picture as if He is a ruthless judge who is not yet quite finished with you and your past. If you have done something wrong, he will plague you with some thoughts of:

1. No hope for grace

2. Guilt for presuming upon God’s forgiveness

3. Others finding out and wanting to publicly deal with you so as to shame you

4. God’s discipline hanging over your head to strike at you when you least expect it; this discipline doesn’t look like loving fatherly discipline (Heb. 12:7-11), it looks like condemnation.

5. That you have committed an unforgivable sin. It may not be the unforgivable sin but he will paint it in such a way that it seems like no man could recover a relationship with God after such an act.

6. Your past makes you unusable to God in the Great Commission

7. You should never feel at ease until you have paid your penalty

By re-living your past, the dark lord wants to keep you from forgetting what lies behind (Phil. 3:13-14). He wants to keep you from remembering what your current identity is in Christ (Rom. 6). He wants to keep you from living by faith (Gal. 2:20). He wants to keep you from rising up from the depths of despair to go out in the peace of knowing your faith has saved you (Lk. 7:50). 

What Re-Living the Past Does

He wants you to be trapped by the past. He wants you to dwell on your sin. Dwelling on sin causes you to skip out on seeing your Savior. He knows that the longer you dwell upon the glory of Jesus Christ that you will become more like Him (2 Cor. 3:18) and, therefore, more able to tear down his armies and thwart his tactics. You must remember that this is war! There is no neutral ground. There is never any “no man’s land”. As long as you are on this earth, the dark lord and his forces will seek you out. 

He will pull up a specific memory from your past and until you defeat him there he will continue to hound you with that thought. “Am I innocent? Did I really do that? If this went public, what would people think? Is God going to ‘get me back’ for this? Have I really dealt with this sin as I should?” But be sure, once you have fought off that one memory, he will bring up another.

When you realize that you have sinned (however greatly but especially in those times of great sin), the dark lord will show you more of your depravity than you have ever realized before. He will make you feel as if you are the epitome of sin. He will make you feel as if no one has a more evil, darkened, and hardened heart like you. You are an abnormal sinner. You are a hopeless sinner. You are a graceless sinner. 

He will tempt you to think that no other Christians have sinned this way in the past and even if they did they dealt with it far better than you have. Before they went to heaven (if they were going to get to heaven), they went back and fixed everything! The dark lord will tell you “You have depended too much on the free forgiveness of Jesus and haven’t quite turned over every stone to truly repent of this. What you need to do”, the dark lord wants you to think, “is to go back and split every hair to make sure you get the justice you deserve. Your repentance from such acts and thoughts are not enough. Your seeking others for help is not enough. No matter how small, you must announce it to the world so that they can put you on trial because the courtroom of Christ is only a heavenly reality. God will never set you free until you go through the earthly courtroom.”

When Satan Pinpoints the Memory

When you look back on such an event and you realize that you have not sinned in such a way, the dark lord will tempt you to think that your thoughts of the past aren’t accurate. He will try to take things out of context and blow them out of proportion. “You forgot about this part of it. You forgot how it hurt the other person greatly. You forgot how much it offended the glory of Christ.” He will make you ask plenty of “what if” questions. Here is the thing about this, no matter how many of those “what if” questions you answer accurately and honestly there will always be more “what if” questions to come. Often times, the dark lord will only use the knowledge that you have against you for the next “what if”. What is required here is to see that this is not of God. We must call this for what it is. This is a satanic attack!

When you look back on such an event and you realize that you have sinned greatly, he will pester you. He will pinpoint his full attack upon this one spot. It is the one crack in the armor that he will keep throwing his forces at. He is like a boxer who finds the one weak spot on his opponent and he will beat you into submission by hammering that one spot. He will darken your view of the cross. He will cause you to lose all sight of forgiveness. He will make your sin much bigger than your Savior. He will grip your thought life with such force it feels as if you can never escape. It will feel more real than the very moment in which you are living. Anything that reminds you of anything remotely similar to that memory will feel like spiritual PTSD. He will fire a thousand arrows at that area of your hurt conscience. If He cannot take away your salvation, He will certainly try to take away your experience of it.

How To Fight By Faith

When you read the Bible, especially when Jesus deals with such horrible sinners with such terrible pasts, do you see our Lord (the One who hates sin more than anyone!) treating people this way? Do you hear Him giving the command for His little lambs to turn over every stone in their past until all their sin is acknowledged to the full and dealt with on this earth? Do you hear Him say, “Fix this in your past first and then you may experience my grace”? Does He who is gentle and lowly in heart (Mt. 11:28-30) seem like the type of Savior who would hound such tender souls who are overloaded by the crushing yoke of their past? Would He really be the summun bonum (Latin for “the highest good”) if He tortured His saints with their past? Why would anyone want to go from living a life where they do everything to forget their past sins to go to a “savior” who would hound them for the rest of their lives on this earth with their past? Is this freedom? Is this love? Is this forgiveness?

We must not let the dark lord determine our Christology. We must remember the study that B.B. Warfield undertook when he sought to determine the emotion that was most attached to Christ in the Scriptures. “The emotion which we should naturally expect of finding most frequently attributed to that Jesus whose whole life was a mission of mercy, and whose ministry was so marked by deeds of beneficence that it was summed up in the memory of his followers as a going through the land ‘doing good’ (Acts. xi. 38), is no doubt ‘compassion.’ In point of fact, this is the emotion which is most frequently attributed to him.” 

Does this mean that Christ doesn’t deal with our past that needs to be dealt with? No. Does this mean that Christ doesn’t call us to repent of all sin? No. It means that when He deals with our past and when He calls us to repent that He is first and foremost compassionate when He goes about it. He is not harsh, rough, and domineering. He desires us to leave our past in the past so that we might live by faith in the present. He knows that the past can entrap us in a dungeon of despair (similar to what Christian in Pilgrim’s Progress was entrapped in). He wants to boost our faith. 

How Does Christ Treat Us?

Listen, when Christ convicts us, not condemns us, we will know it. It is of a much more pure way. See how He approach Peter after He had risen from the dead (Jn. 21:15-19). Notice how He approached all the disciples after they all betrayed Him (Jn. 20:19-29). If He really wants you to deal with something, He will enable you to deal with it. He will not rub your nose in it. He will show you the grace, love, mercy, and forgiveness that you have in Him the entire time. He has dealt with our sins. You must fight to remember that this involves all of your past. 

When Christ died on the cross and rose for your justification, He meant it. In other words, He did not neglect anything. He knows it all and it’s for the past event, that past event, that He died. He wants to forgive. He desires to cleanse you. 

Are there some things from our past that we must deal with if they are left undone? Yes, but when He deals with you it is much more pastoral than the dark lord. There are many times in which things are too far gone and He desires for us to move on. It would be an act of unbelief were we to tell Jesus, “Just wait right here for a second so that I can go back and do something. Then I will follow you.” 

He places your eyes upon Him more than your past. But, once He deals with our past, He does not make us keep re-hashing it. God is not “historical” with us in that He brings up our past time and time again. Matter of fact, He bids us time and time again to go on an live in light of our full forgiveness in Christ:

1. Luke 7:50 And he said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”

2. Mark 5:34 "Daughter," said Jesus, "your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be free of your affliction."

3. Luke 17:19 And he said to him, “Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well.”

4. Philippians 3:13 Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead

Biblical Reflection and Application

Was David supposed to re-live his memory of sleeping with Bathsheba and killing Uriah over and over even after he heard of God’s forgiveness from Nathan? Did Jesus come to Peter after He had risen from the dead and did He rub Peter’s nose in his denying Jesus three times? Was Paul to always dwell on the fact that he endorsed the stoning of Stephen? Was Jacob to keep thinking about the countless lies he told in the past? Was Sarah to remind Abraham over and over about the two times that he told others that she was his sister? Was Moses to be haunted by the Egyptian he killed or of his striking the rock? What kind of salvation would this be?

 We must remember that it is more of an act of faith and more honoring to our Lord when we forget what lies behind and press forward in faith. We need to realize that this is a great danger to our souls if we think we cannot rest in the blood of Christ but rather need to seek atonement another way. After all, when we seek to re-live our past we are hoping that we are either guiltless or we try to figure out how we can atone for our sins. Either way, that is avoiding the Cross.

Now, to be sure, there are some who can use these truths to their own sinister advantage to run away from their sin. They can use it as a “get out of jail free” card. Those souls must deal with the Lord and He will be sure to deal with them. But, these truths are for those who aren’t running away from Jesus. They want Him. They want to be free from their sins.

God Of Our Future

God promises us a future (Jer. 29:11). One piece of the fruit of the Spirit is peace, not torment (Gal. 5:22). The Christian is at peace with God (Rom. 5:1). Sin no longer has dominion over us (Rom. 6:14). There is no more condemnation for us in Christ (Rom. 8:1). The Spirit bears witness in us that we are children of God (Rom. 8:12-17). He doesn’t torture us with regret and shame from the past. For freedom Christ set us free; we must stand firm and never again take upon us the yoke of slavery (Gal. 5:1). 

Jesus always approaches people seeing their potential future in Him (Jn. 1:42, 47; Mt. 4:20). Even when He does remind someone of their past (such as the Samaritan woman in John 4), He always does so in order to quickly bring them to the source of grace. Do you really think sinners and tax collectors would flock to be with Him (Matt. 9:10; Luke 15:1) if He only reminded them time and time again of their constant failures and gave them no hope?

Jesus is far greater than we can ever imagine! Do not let those attacks from the dark lord change the reality of the heart of Christ (Mt. 11:28-30). Do not assume the worst or most harsh motives of Christ. The dark lord always tries to make himself look more gentle, loving, gracious, and approachable than Jesus. He wants to paint Jesus in rough colors. He wants you to say to yourself, “Why would I continue with Jesus if this is what life with Him is like?”

What Should You Do When You Don't "Feel" Loved By God?

Feelings. Man, they’re weird. Like the winter in Mississippi, they don’t always seem to work the way they should. Dr. Kwasny once told me that feelings are like a car’s “check engine” light. They don’t tell us the whole story but they tell us that a story is there.

Feelings are like a magician. They show us one thing but the entire process remains a mystery. If we’re not careful, we can be fooled like the magic trick. We are tempted to “see” one thing when in reality the result has come about a totally different way.

One of the many different feelings that Christians “get” is when they don’t feel loved by God. As I often hear from young people (youth and college), “I understand it but I don’t really feel it.” Yes and amen to that! I’ve been there with you in this feeling before. There are still times that I don’t feel what I acknowledge to be true. It’s those 18 inches between head and heart that often feel like miles apart.

Head To Heart

The head and the heart have an interesting relationship within us. The heart cannot feel what the head does not know. The way to the heart is through the head. It is theology that fuels doxology. If you want to feel with your heart, you must think with your head. We will never have right affections for God until we are taught the truth about God. This means that truth comes to the head before it gets to the heart. But, the heart often feels like a memorable experience for me.

My mother is tall and, therefore, has long legs. When I was young, and obviously had shorter legs at the time, I would struggle to keep up with my mother when we walked. Not only was she tall, she also walked very fast. This was double trouble for young and short Wilson. One of my biggest memories from my young days is our trip to Disney World. I remember the rides, the food, and the Summer heat. I also remember one quote that was often repeated. “Keep up!” Yup, that was young Wilson’s biggest memory during those days. My mom would walk so fast and young Wilson would desperately try to keep up. Our head and heart are sometimes like my mother and young Wilson. The head often seems to be telling our hearts to “keep up!”

Can We Get Practical?

It’s important that we put our feelings in their proper place in an age that is all about “the feels”. As “indicator lights”, we need to make sure we use our feelings to search our hearts. One of the common feelings that Christians often get is the feeling that they’re not loved by God. We’d never admit that God doesn’t love us out loud but the feeling still lurks within. Our heads (aka our doctrine) tell us that we are loved but our hearts tell us that we’re not. So, why is there that head-heart gap? Why do we get that feeling of not being loved by God?

There are many different reasons that should be explored. This is the reason why we need solid biblical counseling in every season of our lives. There is no replacement for having someone regularly search the dynamics of your heart. But, there are some practical tools that we can use to help us truly know this love of God more.

Three Ways To “Feel” God’s Love More

1. We need to understand the love of God more.
   In my first class at Tulane, our professor took our entire class to a restaurant for us to learn how to make gumbo. Having a father who grew up in Mobile, I grew up having my fair share of good gumbo. I loved gumbo but I had never made gumbo. Our professor separated the class into three teams for a cook-off. It was here that I had to actually learn how to make gumbo. After about two hours of cooking, I finally tasted a bowl. It was amazing!
   Now, here is the question: Was it really the best gumbo that I ever had? Or, did it taste better because I knew more about how to make it? In my most humble moment, I would say the latter. You see, it’s because I understood more about it that I tasted more of it.
   My wife works with John Wiggins and Mark Brown at Trinity Apparel. They work on tailored suits. I like suits but I don’t know the first thing about style. Then, my wife started to explain to me the different parts of the suit and what some look better than others. You want to know what happened after that moment? I began to see everyone’s suit totally different. I still don’t know much at all but even the microscopic knowledge that I do have made me love suits even more.
   In the same way, there are many times that we don’t feel loved because we actually don’t understand enough about God’s love. Your head might be telling you, “You already know that God is love and that God loves you. So, just get with the program buddy!” But in reality, you don’t know enough about God’s love. If God is infinite then the knowledge of God’s love can never be complete. It’s when we see a bigger God than we know a bigger love. The more we understand the doctrine of love the more we understand the majesty of God’s love.
   There is more to this. We need to understand more about who God is and what the gospel tells us. We don’t merely need to study the doctrine of love but we also need to study the entirety of God’s being. We need to see God’s sovereign love and His wise love. We need to see His gracious love, all-powerful love, unchanging love, everywhere-present love, and jealous love. It’s as I grow in my knowledge of who God is that I then can apply it to my knowledge of God’s love.
   Think about it this way. In cajun cooking, the onion is key. But, if you want to understand how awesome an onion is then you need to study how peppers, celery, thyme, and garlic interact with onions. It’s when you understand more about other vegetables and herbs that the wonder of the onion is seen.
   Maybe you don’t feel loved because your understanding of the storyline of the Bible is lacking. Maybe you don’t feel loved because your understanding of love is determined by the world. Maybe you don’t feel loved because your understanding of the Trinity is not correct. Our feelings depend on our knowledge.
   Apply: Find the resources to help you learn more about who God is and what the Bible says. We need to find the most helpful resources that grow us in our knowledge of God. We need more exposure to the Word, not less.

2. We need to compare and contrast the love of God.
   Describe a dog. What would you compare a dog to? What would you use to show the contrast? Imagine trying to explain how a dog is an animal that also lives with us. If you met someone who had never seen a dog, how would you describe one? Those comparisons and contrasts help us better picture what a dog is like.
   It’s when we have better comparisons and contrasts of God’s love that we understand it better. For instance, there are many great comparisons of God’s love in movies, books, and TV shows. Think about the movie The Lion King where we see the love of Mufasa for Simba. Think about the book Harry Potter where we see the love of Lily Potter laying down her life for her son Harry. There are many fascinating examples of substitutionary love.
   It’s when we use these comparisons that we can have a better “picture” of that love. That’s why preachers and teachers use illustrations in sermons, lectures, and lessons. The best preachers have used great illustrations to paint mental pictures in people’s minds. Just read the sermons of Thomas Watson, Jonathan Edwards, Augustine, John Calvin, Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Charles Spurgeon, and Tim Keller.
   Jesus was a master of using illustrations! He knew that it helped us to see comparisons to God’s love. Just think about the Parable of the Prodigal Son. Why didn’t he just say, “Hey guys, God loves you”? God created a physical world and gave us five senses. He created us inside His story. We were made to love stories, illustrations, and pictures.
   But, there are also contrasts. The best love of an earthly father fails to compare totally to our heavenly Father’s love. The best love of a friend laying down his life for another doesn’t totally encapsulate the loveliness of the sacrifice on Calvary. We need to be reminded that the best earthly examples are like the Sun. The Sun is massive! It’s so big and bright that we can see that burning ball from 92 million miles away (sometimes I feel like that’s how far away my heart is from my head). Even though the Sun is that big, we know that outer space is even bigger. Have we measured even half of space? Have we sent a satellite to each solar system? We have such a small view of the universe. God’s love is like outer space and the earthly examples are like the Sun. There is no example (including this one since outer space isn’t infinite!) that can fully contain the knowledge of God.
   Apply: Don’t shy away from comparing and contrasting God’s love with the things, events, and people that you see. Creation is crying out that we take notice. It’s when we find helpful illustrations that we can picture God’s love more. Natural Revelation gives us good pictures of truths in Special Revelation.

3. We need to apply the love of God.
   What does it matter if we do all the studying and paint all the pictures if we never ask “so, what?” There was once a preaching professor who used to sit at the back of each class when his students would preach. He would sit and listen to students explain and illustrate the text. It wasn’t long until the students improved significantly in exposition and delivery but many would still forget to ask “so, what?” When there were 5 minutes left in the sermon, the professor would always hold up a giant sign that said, “So, what?” It was a reminder to the preacher that the people must not only see what the Bible says but they must also see how the Bible changes the way they live, feel, think, and love.
   We need to do the same thing to ourselves. When we study theology, we must do the painstaking work of asking how this truth changes the way we live. We need to spend time thinking about how it changes the way I interact with my micromanaging boss. I need to meditate on how a truth changes the way I respond to kids who pester me with questions whenever we’re on a retreat. I need to think deeply about how God’s love changes the way I respond whenever I’m reminded of how sinful I really am. We need to ask “so, what?”
   I remember one year for Christmas getting a set of plates from my brother and sister-in-law. I had the face of my wife when she was seven years old and she got clothes for Christmas. Let’s just say that she wasn’t happy. Here’s the thing, that was me and I was 27! Like all good Southerners, I put on a happy face and said “thank you” while I pouted to my wife about it later. Let’s just say that she was wise in how to respond to me. I didn’t see any use for these plates. We already had plates! Well, then I started to use them. I found that the semi-bowl/semi-plate looking thing was actually amazing. Do you know what my favorite dish in our pantry is now? It’s that Christmas gift! You see, whenever I actually used it and saw how it changed the way I could plate food then I realized how awesome it was.
   It’s when we see how a doctrine changes the way we live that we see more of the beauty of God’s truth. This is what good writers, preachers, and teachers do. They show us how God’s love actually changes the way we live. They say things such as, “If God’s love is sovereign then that means nothing and no one can stop Him from loving you.” Or they might say, “If God’s love is infinitely wise then that means that everything that God brings in your life will be used for you to know more of His love for you.” We often don’t feel loved because we don’t apply God’s love.
   Apply: Read books by people who show you how the gospel actually changes your thoughts, feelings, and actions. Read books by Tim Keller, Ed Welch, Heath Lambert, Kevin DeYoung, and Jerry Bridges. Find books by Sinclair Ferguson, Paul Miller, Paul Tripp, Tim Chester, and Michael Reeves. Read what John Kwasny and John Perritt have written!

Wednesday Night Preview

Tomorrow night, I will be leading us in our next talk in our series on “Through the Trembling Darkness: Thinking Biblically About Anxiety and Depression”. We will be talking about “The Fear of God vs The Fear of Man” and how this affects our understanding of anxiety and depression. We will be seeking to answer questions such as:

1. How does the fear of man actually show up in real-life?

2. What happens in our hearts whenever the fear of man takes over?

3. What does it mean to fear God?

4. How can I grow in the fear of God?

5. How does fearing man affect my anxiety and depression?

Wednesday Night Preview (Anxiety vs Concern)

Tonight, Pastor Caleb will be leading us in talking about “Anxiety vs Concern”. This is for everyone college-age and up. Youth will go to Large Group and Kids will go to Catechism.

Preview for Tonight's Teaching: God And the World We Live In

Here is a preview video of what we’ll be talking about tonight. Bring your kids to catechism and bring your 7th-12th grade children to the Youth Large Group. Dinner starts at 5:30 and the teaching starts at 6:30. There will be a teaching session for half the time and discussion in groups for the other half.

A Preview of Wednesday Nights This Spring At POPC

The following video is a preview of what we will be doing with the Men and Women combined on Wednesday nights this Spring at POPC.

Uploaded by Wilson Van Hooser on 2020-01-21.

Top 20 Books From 2019

We are what we read. Whether on the phone, computer, iPad, e-reader, or good old fashioned books (my favorite!), we are what we read. As the Puritan John Trapp once said, “Be careful what books you read, for as water tastes of the soil it runs through, so does the soul taste of the authors that a man reads.”

I’m not going to sugar coat this, I read some awesome books this year! This was a great year of reading for me. The Lord brought so many great books across my desk this year. Some are old and some are new. All of these books were very influential to me this year.

This is not a list of books that came out this year but rather a list of the best books that I read this year. Like everyone’s top 10 list, this is certainly one that is very opinionated and subjective. Nevertheless, I hope some of these books might make it to your bedside table or your bookshelf.

1. Behold Your God: Rethinking God Biblically by John Snyder
   Life-changing. I don’t just throw that out. “Truly, Truly” this book was life-changing. Few books have shown me a bigger God. Although this is more of a study (and a DVD accompanying set if you so choose), I have come across few things that showed me the God of the Bible like this. There are certain seasons of life where certain books start that new chapter. This is one of them for me. This launched me into some of the other books that I read this year (Barrett, Gladd). The Lord used this to give me such a craving to know Him more. This book will plow, plant, and nurture your heart. It’s a phenomenal resource for daily devotions, Bible studies, or for turning it into a Sunday school lesson series. Thankfully, he has come out with another book and, word on the street is that he is working on a third study!

2. None Greater: The Undomesticated Attributes of God by Matthew Barrett
   Stunning book. The cover design (a lion staring you in the face!) really does echo the content of the book. God is seen as an “undomesticated” lion in this book. This is so enjoyable to read and so easy to follow along. As one pastor has said, “It’s easy to understand but hard to swallow.” These truths about who God is will blow your mind! It has been such a refreshing book for me to read and certainly one that I will read again in later years.

3. The Institutes of the Christian Religion by John Calvin
   This is what my Summer Adult Sunday School class went through and this meant that I needed to go through it as well. Yes, this is a big book with many words but that shouldn’t scare you away. Calvin is devotional, clear, accessible. There is a reason why this book has been around for hundreds of years. There is a reason why the Church has poured itself over this book. This is NOT a book merely for pastors and teachers. Actually, it was written for the “common” person! This is one of the original “systematic theologies” and it is still one of the standards. Pick up Calvin and read him! Even if you only need a book to reference, buy Calvin! You’d be surprised how much you could read if you read him for only 15 minutes a day. There is no substitute for this classic.

4. From Adam and Israel To the Church: A Biblical Theology of the People of God by Benjamin L. Gladd (RTS Professor!)
   I was privileged to get an early copy from the man himself! And look, I’m at the point that I’m just going to read everything he writes. He is enjoyable, clear, applicable, and writes in such fresh ways that makes the Bible seem brand new. Every time I listen to his lectures or read his books I see the Bible in a new way. To be sure, Gladd isn’t coming up with anything new but rather pointing out to us what’s been there all along. This is a great book that totally shapes our identity as a people of God and how God has devoted Himself to us. Also, he has some awesome graphics and charts in there.

5. Romans by J.V. Fesko
   This is a book that I have written recommended to many people this year. While preparing for our Youth Large Group sermon series, I picked up this book from one our newest professor at RTS Jackson. This was a great read! I used it for my daily devotions as I read one chapter each morning. Once again, this was so clear and so accessible. I came away each day thinking, “I know this section of Romans better.” It was not only intellectually stimulating but it was also devotionally warm. Fesko makes sure to apply the text to our modern-day situation and he does so in a great way. God is big. Salvation is amazing. Holiness is beautiful. Heaven is sure. These were major takeaways for me from this excellent commentary.

6. Setting Our Affections upon Glory: Nine Sermons on the Gospel and the Church by Martyn Lloyd-Jones
   I read a lot of Lloyd-Jones. Matter of fact, I read everything of Lloyd-Jones. This is, yet again, another series of sermons that are timeless and life-changing. I want to know the God that Lloyd-Jones knew. These sermons were preached when Hurricane Camille (the second most intense tropical cyclone on record to strike the United States) was heading straight towards Pensacola and McIlwain Presbyterian Church where Martyn Lloyd-Jones was to preach. As in typical Lloyd-Jones style, this didn’t alter him at all. He was going to preach and preach he did. If you like reading the sermons of Martyn Lloyd-Jones, you should grab this book. This is a bucket of cold water for our evangelical culture today.

7. The Life and Theology of Paul by Guy Waters
   No, this is not a paid endorsement for my RTS professors. This is genuinely another book from them that I read this year that was in my top 10. The strength of Dr. Waters is doctrinal clarity. I love lists. I love orderly writing. Dr. Waters’ book is full of lists (Ex: “First,…Second,….” etc.). For me, this makes it easy to follow and also easy to use. If you want a short, accessible, yet in-depth book on the life and theology of Paul then you need to pick this one up. If you’re teaching on any of the Pauline epistles then you need to use this as a guide. This is a great resource for book studies as well. Like my other RTS professors, Waters makes you come away with a better understanding of Scripture and a clearer view of God and His marvelous salvation.

8. Revelation For You (God's Word for You) by Tim Chester
   Do you want to understand the book of Revelation in a more simple way? Get this book. This will make you want to teach a Bible study through the book of Revelation. Chester is one of my favorite modern writers and commentators. This is a great resource for devotions (as is the whole series) and this will leave you with confidence that you know the book of Revelation. I loaned this out and that person came away with the same thought!

9. 2 Samuel For You: The Triumphs and Tragedies of God's King (God's Word for You) by Tim Chester
   I could say the exact same thing as #8 but in reference to the book of 2 Samuel. Great read! Great for devotions! Read Chester.

10. Love Walked Among Us by Paul Miller
    This book will help you see another side of Jesus. It’s almost like you have a documentary camera crew following Jesus so that you can see Him up close. Things that are clear in Scripture, but frequently skimmed over, are brought to light. The compassion, honesty, and dependence of Jesus were much needed for me to see. God in the flesh was seen as beautiful! This is a great book to teach me to slow down in my Bible reading (especially in the Gospels) and to notice what the writers are actually saying.

11. The Gospel-Driven Church by Jared Wilson
    I love Jared Wilson’s books. He is a page-turner! This book is a solid addition to the many gospel-centered books coming out. In my opinion, this one has been the best one that I’ve read so far. His chapter on “The Five Metrics That Matter Most” is a reduplication and application of some of what Jonathan Edwards saw in the Great Awakening. This chapter is worth the price of the book. This is a great book not only for pastors but for the average church member. It makes you want to pursue to be more of a gospel-driven church member.

12. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
    This was my first time reading The Hobbit. I know. I know. I’m sorry for the 28-year delay. This was such a great read. Books that take you on a journey are so refreshing to read. There were several times I was reading where I could see the parallel between Bilbo’s journey to The Lonely Mountain and the Christian life. The book is better than the movie (but I definitely watched the movies afterward!).

13. Insecure: Fighting our Lesser Fears with a Greater One by John Perritt
    You just need to take an afternoon or two to read this. Yes, John is writing mainly to youth but don’t let that keep you (if you’re not a youth) from buying this. This is timeless (this will also hilariously remind you of what your teenage days used to be like!). Short, clear, applicable, and biblical. There is a reason why John’s RYM elective class this Summer was one of the biggest classes at all the conferences. There is also a reason why our Youth Ministry Fall Retreat got some much feedback (because he was the speaker!). This is a great resource for those who know they struggle with insecurity and for those who don’t acknowledge it (but trust me, after reading this you’ll realize that you do to some level). I’ve passed out all my copies by now.

14. Pursuing a Heart of Wisdom: Counseling Teenagers Biblically by John Kwasny
    Doctor, Pappa, Father, Sunday School teacher, Christian Education Director, Biblical Counselor, and lover of Chicago White Sox baseball John Kwasny has written a terrific book. There is a lot of popular psychology out there but this gets to the heart. Like Dr. Waters’ book, this is so organized and filled with lists (did I mention that I love lists?). In my opinion, I think the book’s strength is in using it as a reference book. The table of contents is divided up in such a way where you can search for issues by topic. This makes it easy to use over the years.

15. The Rhetoric Companion: A Student’s Guide to Power in Persuasion by N.D. Wilson and Douglas Wilson
    I am teaching a class at CCS on Public Speaking and I was preparing for the class I looked up several books that I could use for teaching the class. This was great! This is a solid resource that shows you the basic elements of speaking but does so from a Christian worldview. The Wilsons (father and son duo) are great writers and teachers. It is a great book to use for all ages. As someone who speaks often, I found it to be one of the more helpful books on speaking that I have read.

16. Simplicity in Preaching by J.C. Ryle
    Short, to the point, and so relevant, this was such a good read for me this year. From the back cover: This is a new and updated edition by H&E Publishing with a helpful addition by Bennett W. Rogers. The early preaching ministry of J. C. Ryle, one of the most powerful preachers of the Victorian era, was an unmitigated disaster. He struggled to keep the attention of his rural congregation, and so he embarked on a series of failed "pulpit experiments." Through this process of trial and error, Ryle learned to "crucify" his style and win the attention of his parishioners. Once he found his voice, popularity soon followed. He filled his churches to suffocation and became a sought after platform speaker. He was repeatedly chosen to be the select preacher for Oxford and Cambridge, and continued to draw large crowds well into his eighties as the Bishop of Liverpool. In Simplicity in Preaching, J. C. Ryle presents the fruit of a lifelong quest to attain a simplicity in preaching for his fellow ministers.

17. Safe and Sound: Standing Firm in Spiritual Battles by David Powlison
    This was such an encouraging book to me in the season that I read it. Outside of William Gurnall’s massive treatment on the Armor of God, this is my go-to read. This is a short book but man is it packed with power! This is why people love reading everything Powlison writes. This book shows you that spiritual warfare is real and more evident than you realize. Powlison also shows you how to fight back and how to live by the power of the Holy Spirit.

18. When People Are Big and God Is Small by Ed Welch
    There is a reason why this is a modern-day classic. If you are struggling with anxious feelings, peer-pressure, codependency, pride, shame, or anything like this then you need to get this book. It took me too long until I finally read this. This was like a fire in the middle of a cold winter.

19. Meet Generation Z: Understanding and Reaching the New Post-Christian World by James Emery White
    Although I don’t agree with several of his suggested responses to the problems of Generation Z, this was a very needed book for me to read as someone working in Youth Ministry. I think the first couple of chapters of this book will benefit any parent, pastor, or youth worker. We cannot think about today’s teenagers through the lens of, “Well, when I was that age _________ .” That doesn’t work. This is a new and different generation. We need to learn what they are like and this book helps us to do so. This is filled with showing us the good things about Generation Z but also the not so good things. The Church needs to take heed of what this generation is like because they are the future elders, deacons, pastors, leaders, and members of the Church.

20. How to Grill Everything: Simple Recipes for Great Flame-Cooked Food by Mark Bittman
    I don’t apologize for putting a cookbook in here. This thing is amazing. No, I haven’t read it from cover to cover but I have looked at every recipe and tried several of them. This is awesome. Definitely a solid Christmas gift for someone you know.

One Of The Most Convicting Blog Posts I've Ever Read

My wife finds great blog posts from other people that I miss throughout the week. This very well might be a gift from the Lord because she often finds articles and blogs that are spot-on for what I am looking for.

While preparing to preach from Romans 14-16 in a couple of weeks I have been looking into the topic of peacemaking in the church. As this is on the horizon, my wife sent me a blog post from Kevin DeYoung that perfectly fits the bill for what I was looking for. The title of the blog post is “Distinguishing Marks of a Quarrelsome Person”. The following are some of the marks that are included on DeYoung’s list of 12.

1. You defend every conviction with the same degree of intensity. There are no secondary or tertiary issues. Everything is primary. You’ve never met a hill you wouldn’t die on.

2. You are quick to speak and slow to listen. You rarely ask questions and when you do it is to accuse or to continue prosecuting your case. You are not looking to learn, you are looking to defend, dominate, and destroy.

4. You are incapable of seeing nuances, and you do not believe in qualifying statements. Everything in life is black and white without any gray.

7. You are unable to sympathize with your opponents. You forget that sinners are also sufferers. You lose the ability to put yourself in someone else’s shoes.

8. Your first instinct is to criticize; your last instinct is to encourage. Quarrelsome people almost always see others in need of rebuke, rarely in need of refreshing.

11. You are always in the trenches with hand grenades strapped to your chest, never in the cafeteria with ice cream and ping pong. I remember years ago talking to a returning serviceman in my church who told me sheepishly that his job in Iraq was to drive an armed convoy for the ice cream truck. It was extremely dangerous, escorting the vehicle through bomb infested territory. This was brave, honorable work. And important: Even soldiers need ice cream once in a while. The amp doesn’t have to be cranked to 11 all the time. Seriousness about God is not the same as pathological seriousness about everything. Remember G. K. Chesterton: “We have to feel the universe at once as an ogre’s castle, to be stormed, and yet as our own cottage, to which we can return to at evening.”

This article is a fabulous and convicting read but certainly, one that will rightly humble us. For the full article, click here.

20 Quotes From John Kwasny's New Book

Our very own Dr. John C. Kwasny has released yet another book and this time on counseling teenagers. This is a fabulous book and certainly a must-read for youth workers and parents. Teenagers would also benefit greatly from getting this and reading it themselves. It is a great book to read straight through but also very beneficial as a resource book throughout the years. The structure of the book is laid out to be very accessible as it is divided up into topics. What I wanted to do in this post was give you 20 quotes from John’s new book to entice you to go to Amazon and buy it. Here we go:

1. “Sadly, many teens are left to themselves during these years, dealing with the temptations and the struggles of their hearts and minds all on their own. Yet, all through the Book of Proverbs, young people are taught to gain wisdom through listening to and obeying their parents and other wise adults. If teenagers are to listen and learn wisdom, then parents and other mature adults are to speak wisdom and live wisely before them!” p. 13

2. “When foundational views of God and people are faulty or deficient, the counsel that emerges from them will miss the mark as well. If you examine the advice given to teenagers today, including counsel given by some Christians, you will quickly learn that the main problem is that their underlying presuppositions are not Biblical.” p. 22

3. “Teenagers have bodies and souls that are not fully developed, brains that are still maturing, and body chemistry that is still in flux. To not recognize teens as bodies and souls will keep us from recognizing the influence of their bodies on their souls. But the fundamental error on the other side of the coin is to only see teenagers as a mass of chemicals and hormones!” p. 27

4. “Biblical change occurs when they learn to destroy the idols of their heart and constantly return to the right worship of God. As God’s Spirit and His Word do their joint work in hearts, change will be reflected on the doing and feeling levels as well.” p. 35

5. “Biblical counseling is a gospel-driven, Christ-centered series of conversations between parent and child, counselor and counselee, leader and student. It is the essential work of relational dialogue that seeks true Biblical change, growth in grace, repentance and faith, knowledge and wisdom.” p. 37

6. “So when teens are struggling with diverse problems, they need Biblical truth from the lips of their parents. They require the proper application of Scripture to their problems. They need parents who teach Biblical wisdom as well as ones who are living wisely in front of them.” p. 55

7. “The starting point for just about any problem is for a person to actually acknowledge there is a problem.” p. 73

8. “Don’t confront your teen’s anger with your own anger. Do show true compassion for the pain the teen is experiencing. Don’t excuse all anger as being simply a normal emotion.” p. 82

9. “To rightly deal with anxiety that is either specific or generalized, the starting place is to recognize that our hearts are easily tempted to worry due to many difficulties in this life. Even that admission is difficult for many teens who act like they everything under control.” p. 89

10. “When your teenager speaks about being depressed—or is displaying some of the common symptoms—it is essential to step back and get a bigger picture, a better view, of the problem. Why do we need to get the big picture of depression? Because it keeps us from oversimplifying the problem and assuming a singular, universal cause to all types of depression.” p. 106

11. “As much as it’s vital to deal with heart issues like spiritual slavery and worthless false worship, our teens’ sinful thought patterns must be addressed as well. We literally have to answer the question: ‘What are they thinking?’” p. 131

12. “Opal needs to see that her love of self has to be confessed and repented of before she can actually look at her body in the right way. This love of self is also connected to pride in our hearts, as we think we are entitled to be healthy, look good, or be at a certain weight.” p. 147

13. “Our teens need to be reminded that being cleansed from sin is a fact, whether we feel it or not.” p. 167

14. “Complete change is never promised to us in this life—of any sinful desire. We will only be fully cleansed of our sin in glory. Whatever the result, the Christian teen who believes the truth of God’s Word doesn’t just wait for desires to change, but works, by the Spirit to combat these thoughts and feelings—and not act on them.” p. 181

15. “What teens must deal with is their tendency and temptation to love themselves more than they love God or other people. So, while Angie may be extremely self-critical when it comes to certain aspects of her body, this is really out of a deep love and concern for self.” p. 197

16. “Pornography offers a place of escape—a way to sinfully engage imaginations—that seems to have no penalty involved. Rescuing our teens from the land of fantasy is a big part of solving the porn problem. We must keep them grounded in the real life that God has created for them, even when that reality is difficult or frustrating.” p. 209

17. “How do we counsel a teenager with [the hook-up culture mentality] and overall pattern of behavior? The first question which needs to be asked: Is he even a Christian? It is extremely difficult to rationalize how sexual conquest with various partners is compatible with a love for Jesus.” p. 227

18. “Teenagers rebel because they have rebellious hearts. They are not anomalies among a planet full of good, decent, moral people. This truth may not be comforting, but it is essential when we are addressing the problem of rebellion.” p. 239

19. “Often times teenagers are rebelling partly because they are longing for the love and attention of their parents. That may sound overly simplistic, but even teenagers can behave in ways simply to get attention—even if it is purely negative attention.” p. 244

20. “If joy only comes in the context of entertainment media, then everything else will become boring and lifeless. Even worse for the teen’s heart and mind, entertainment media can become the sole way to escape from the pain and suffering in this life. Keeping a God-centered holiness is what we desire to see in our teens as they grow up. Managing the impact of technology and media is an essential part of the sanctifying process.” p. 298