Piper’s Suffering and the Sovereignty of God, Free on Kindle

by | Aug 16, 2009 | Technology

I downloaded the Kindle app for iPhone months ago. Until today I had yet to download a book.  I was looking for a free book that I would find interesting in order to test whether I would actually value reading a book on the iPhone.  Here it is. Amazon.com: Suffering and the Sovereignty of God: John Piper, Justin Taylor: The Kindle...
Is Ministry Your Enemy?

Is Ministry Your Enemy?

by | Aug 11, 2009 | Featured Articles, Pastoral Ministry, Prayer

Here again are a few notes I took while on a recent planning retreat from John Piper’s Brothers We Are Not Professionals. This time on how ministry itself can quickly become an enemy to our primary priorities, namely, prayer: Chapter 9 – Brothers, Beware of Sacred Substitutes 59 – Ministry is its own worst enemy. It is not destroyed by the big, bad wolf of the world. It destroys itself. 60 – Charles Spurgeon put it like this: “Those incessant knocks at our door, and perpetual visits from idle persons, are so many buckets of cold water thrown upon our devout zeal. We must by some means secure uninterrupted meditation, or we shall lose power.” Without extended and consecrated prayer, the ministry of the Word withers up and bears no fruit. Without extended, concentrated prayer, the ministry of the Word withers. And when the ministry of the Word declines, faith (Rom. 10:17; Gal 3:2, 5) and holiness (John 17:7) decline. Activity may continue, but life and power and fruitfulness fade away. Therefore, whatever opposes prayer opposes the whole work of ministry. 61 – But the apostles would not yield to the temptation. This must mean that prayer demanded a large part of their uninterrupted time. If they had thought of prayer as something you do while washing dishes or cooking (or driving a car between hospitals), they would not have seen table-serving as a threat to prayer. Prayer was a time-consuming labor during which other duties had to be set aside. 62 – So the apostles were saying: No Matter how urgent the pressures upon us to spend our time...
Pastors and Prayer

Pastors and Prayer

by | Aug 7, 2009 | Featured Articles, Pastoral Ministry, Prayer

While away on a personal planning retreat, I re-read some sections from John Piper’s excellent book Brothers, We Are Not Professionals. I cannot begin to express how convicted I am over the chapters I read, particularly his comments on prayer: From chapter 8: “Brothers, Let Us Pray” 53 – He ordains to fulfill His plans by being asked to do so by us. God loves to bless His people. But even more He loves to do it in answer to prayer. 54 – A pastor who feels competent in himself to produce eternal fruit – which is the only kind that matters – knows neither God nor himself. A pastor who does not know the rhythm of desperation and deliverance must have his sights only on what man can achieve. But brothers, the proper goals of the life of a pastor are unquestionably beyond our reach. The changes we long for in the he arts of our people can happen only by a sovereign work of grace. 55 – The essence of the Christian ministry is that its success is not within our reach. A cry for help from the heart of a childlike pastor is sweet praise in the ears of God. Nothing exalts Him more than the collapse of self-reliance which issues in passionate prayer for help. 56 – The reason so few conversions are happening through my church is not because we lack a program or staff. It is because we do not love the lost and yearn for their salvation the way we should. And the reason we do not love them as we ought...