Another brand new reason, among some 200 others, I love being a shepherd of God’s people!

Dr. Mohler has a post about recent photos from the Hubble telescope and how they declare the glory of God in oh so fabulous fasion.

Check it out here.

Some years ago, John Eldredge wrote a hugely popular book about men called Wild at Heart. Recently I have reread it along with a sequel, The Way of the Wild Heart. God worked uniquely in my life as a man on both counts. He contends this in the first book:

Christianity, as it currently exists, has done some terrible things to men. When all is said and done, I think most men in the church believe that God put them on the earth to be a good boy . . . a nice guy. . . . Now let me ask my male readers: In all your boyhood dreams growing up, did you ever dream of becoming a Nice Guy (p. 7)?

Whatever one may think about Eldredge’s treatise of masculinity, I can tell you what God wants men to pray about becoming as men in His church. He wants them to dream of becoming good men.

Paul tells Titus in 2:14 that Jesus gave himself for us . . . to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works. Titus gets a commission from Paul in this pastoral letter. He tells his ward to go hard after teaching and preaching that promotes a lifestyle of good works. He describes what that looks like in three spheres: the church (chapter one), the home (chapter two), and the world (chapter 3).

God cares greatly whether or not we excel in goodness as men, just as he does women, as the rest of the context in Titus 2 bears out. The Lord charges Titus to teach what accords with sound doctrine (2:1). The aim of such teaching is plain — that the believers on Crete would take care to devote themselves to good works (3:8).

But the ultimate motivation for such teaching and resultant devotion comes into focus clearly in chapter two in three different verses making the same point.

Verse 5 – that the word of God may not be reviled.

Verse 8 – so that an opponent may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say about us.

Verse 10 – so that in everything they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior.

In every instance the concern remains the same. We must calculate the impact of the lifestyles we live in terms of the way they reflect upon the faith we profess before the critical eyes of a watching, unbelieving world.

Men, we can act in such a way so as to blaspheme God. We can cause His word, the Christian faith, to come under reviling, blasphemous scorn. We can act in such a way so as to set unbelievers off saying all sorts of unflattering things about Christians. We can act in such a way so as to appear to be wearing anything but the doctrine of God our Savior.

May God give us grace to act like men of God so that the name of God may be glorified in us.

How does one battle discouragement in prolonged suffering?

My journal entry from 9.11.05 filled only five lines.

Again there is no change in my condition, except that my lip is nearly healed. I continue to make mucous, especially at night. If I swallow any, it gets thrown up at some point – violently. The amount of mucous is staggering. It is difficult not to be discouraged. Cast your burden on the Lord and He will sustain you (Psa. 55:22).

Take this massive promise to the vault of heaven and cash it in over and over again from the endless resources of God’s care.

That’s how to battle discouragement in prolonged suffering.

I marvel at the timing of God in the concurrence of Conciliation Anniversary Sunday and this stream of articles from William Gurnall. This today:

Now if the Gospel will not allow us to pay our enemies back in their own coin, returning anger for anger, then certainly it forbids a brother to spit fire into the face of another brother. When such embers of contention begin to smoke among Christians, we can be sure Satan planted the spark; he is the one great kindle-coal of all strife.

Fellow fire-spitters, let us be given to Colossians 3:12-17 graces through the power of the Gospel unleashed in our lives.

This from my journal of 9.9.05:

We saw my oncologist yesterday. His summary? “You’ve been to hell and back.” Now he’s looking for me to rebound because there is no more treatment to do – at least until we get the PET scan results in November/December. It should get better every day.

It did get better, but ever so slowly.

For those who wait, remember Isaiah 40:31 –

But they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.

As Conciliation Anniversary Sunday approaches at OGC, here is a trio of statements from William Gurnall that speaks to the matter of biblical peacemaking:

The less progress the Gospel has made in our hearts to mortify lust and strengthen grace, the weaker the peace and love among us.

As grace strengthens, and the gospel prevails in the hearts of Christians, love and a spirit of unity increase with it.

This pair of graces thrive and grow together; a Christian who has abundant faith will also have abundant love.

Oh for saints strong in Gospel graces that peace and love might abound among us!

Brett Bradley beat me to it. Way to go, man.

He posted a portion of an interview with Pastor Matt Chandler about what stirs his affections for Christ and what dulls them.

His comment about college football hit a bit too close to home, but needs to be said to silly blokes like me.

Check it out here.

Al Mohler has a new book out on the Ten Commandments.

You can check it out at his blog.

According to Global Prayer Digest: