Kevin DeYoung is a young pastor in Michigan. His blog alerted me to a letter written by Guido de Bres, the author of the Belgic Confession and pastor in Belgium and France. He wrote to his wife while he was imprisoned in the Black Hole of Brunain for his Protestant faith.

My dear and well-beloved wife in our Lord Jesus, Your grief and anguish are the cause of my writing you this letter. I most earnestly pray you not to be grieved beyond measure…We knew when we married that we might not have many years together, and the Lord has graciously given us seven. If the Lord had wished us to live together longer, he could easily have cause it to be so. But such was not his pleasure. Let his good will be done….Moreover, consider that I have not fallen into the hands of my enemies by chance, but by the providence of God….All these considerations have made my heart glad and peaceful, and I pray you, my dear and faithful companion, to be glad with me, and to thank the good God for what he is going, for he does nothing but what is altogether good and right…I pray you then to be comforted in the Lord, to commit yourself and your affairs to him, he is the husband of the widow and the father of the fatherless, and he will never leave you nor forsake you.

On May 31, 1567, Guido de Bres, 47 years old, was publicly hanged in the market square of Valenciennes. He was pushed off the scaffold as he exhorted the crowd to be faithful to Scripture and respectful to the magistrates. His body was buried in a shallow grave where it was later dug up and torn apart by wild animals.

This is a man “of whom the world was not worthy” (Heb. 11:38).

This is also the spirit of a faithful husband whose faith gives his wife the will to trust and obey the Lord.

“Everything is necessary that God sends;

Nothing can be necessary that he withholds.”

John Newton (author of Amazing Grace, and pastor to William Wilberforce)

The late Ray Stedman once said that every morning when he awakened, he reminded himself of this thought:

I am part of the plan of God. God is working all things to a great and final purpose on earth, and I am part of it. What I do today has purpose and significance and meaning This is not a meaningless day I am going through. Even the smallest incident, the most apparently insignificant word or relationship, is involved in His great plan. Therefore, all of his has meaning and purpose. (source lost)

This article deeply moved me. I encourage you to read it all.

As a father of multiply-disabled child, I have read dozens of books, articles and web sites on disability, suffering and the Bible. What you will see below may be the finest piece on disability and the sovereignty of God I have ever read.

It was written by Joe Eaton and is particularly powerful because Joe lives with the permanently disabling condition of spina bifida. Please join me in praising God for the insight and wisdom God has granted Joe, who is just completing his first semester of college.

The Sovereignty of God in Suffering, by Joe Eaton (first posted on Facebook and used with his permission here)

A friend and I were talking a while ago about the sovereignty of God. She asked me how I thought the sovereignty of God related to disability. More specifically, how does believing the doctrine of the sovereignty of God affect my own experience with disability? At the time, my thoughts on the subject I weren’t very well-prepared or well-organized. But I have also been meaning to write some thoughts about this since I started this blog! So, finally, I’ve written some of my thoughts on this subject. I pray that these musings are Bible-saturated and helpful…

For the rest of the article, read here

The fear of failure paralyzes too many people.

I’ve found one of the best gifts God can give a leader is the gift of failure.

Too many of us are not doing what we feel called to do because we’re afraid to fail.

As I observe the people around me, it seems the most effective have failed far more times than the least effective.

The people making the biggest impact seem to:

1) Try something outlandish.

2) Fail.

3) Learn.

4) Adjust.

5) Try something that works better.

Failure is never final. It is often the first step to success.

If you haven’t failed in awhile, why don’t you try something crazy and see what happens.

(Craig Groeshel)

I know – I’m a sucker for my grandchildren! This is Sadie, enjoying time with her Daddy. I’m still smiling at this one!

If you want community without depth or commitment, go to Facebook.

If you want community with depth and commitment, go to church.

It is the elephant in the room for Christ-followers. The iceberg that sinks the Titanic. The great deceiver. The destroyer of marriages – and missionaries – and ministries. The prison that holds millions in bondage.

Check out these statistics:

50% of all Christian men and 20% of all Christian women are addicted to porn. ChristiaNet

47% of families said pornography is a problem in the home. Focus on the Family

37% of pastors say cyber-porn is a current struggle. Christianity Today, 12/2001

A Pastors.com website survey found that 54% of pastors surveyed viewed Internet porn within the last year. 30% had visited within the last 30 days. Pastors.com

53% of Promise Keepers viewed porn in the last week. Internet Filter Review

Alabama Baptist survey found that 4 of our 10 pastors and 7 out of 10 church leaders admitted to visiting adults web sites at least once a week.

IF YOU ARE STRUGGLING WITH PORN, YOU ARE NOT ALONE!

You can win! Please – do three things:

1. Check out the resources at www.porntopurity.com

2. Tell a trusted friend. Come clean. Puke it out. Let the tears wash the shame out.

3. Install Covenant Eyes today – right now! Enlist accountability partners who love you, and whose computer you cannot access.

The fundamental thing is that Christianity is about Jesus…Christianity is not a teaching—it is a person…The Lord Jesus Christ was the theme of the preaching of the early church…This is the tragic thing that has been forgotten at the present time. ‘What we need,’ people say, ‘is the application of his teaching.’ But it is not. What you need is to know him and to come into relationship with him.
Dr. D. Martin Lloyd-Jones

Don Carson wrote an article entitled, “What to Do If Revival Comes” in the January/February 2003 issue of Modern Reformation magazine.

In the article Carson recounted a conversation he and his wife had in 1975 with an elderly woman in a Calvinist Methodist church in southern Wales. The woman spoke excitedly of how she had been converted during the Welsh Revival of 1904 to 1905. Carson used this exchange to draw out a lesson from church history:

It was an inexpressibly glorious half hour, and equally sad. For apart from the fruit of that Revival in the lives of those who were immediately touched by it, almost nothing was preserved. That Revival started so well but soon became more eccentric and forced. Worse, despite small efforts later in Swansea, almost nothing was done to capture or develop theological schools, multiply Bible teaching, or train a new generation of preachers.

My interest in revival has not waned with the passing years. Wider reading, and some humbling personal exposure to what God has done in various corners of the world during the past half century, have conspired to forge an unshakable resolution within me. Should the Lord in his mercy ever pour out large-scale revival on any part of the world where I have influence, I shall devote all my energy to teaching the Word, to training a new generation of godly pastors, to channeling all of this God-given fervor toward doctrinal maturity, multiplication of Christian leaders, evangelistic zeal, maturity in Christ, genuine Christian “fellowship.”

This conviction captures well what we are trying to do at The Gospel Coalition. Lord willing, when Revival comes we will be ready to compliment the efforts of the local church to preserve the outpouring of God’s grace for future generations of gospel ministry.

“There should be no less support or attention for an earnest Christian young person who has been accepted to the Julliard School of Music than for one going off to seminary. The church needs writers, performers, artists, speakers, politicians, businessmen, and workers in every craft and trade. In God’s eyes there is no hierarchy. There certainly should not be in ours.” Bob Briner, Roaring Lambs: A Gentle Plan to Radically Change Your World.

A man may be called to preach the gospel in the same place for years, and he may, at times, feel burdened by the thought of having to address the same audience, on the same theme, week after week, month after month, year after year. He may feel at times at a loss for something new, something fresh, some variet.

It will greatly help such to remember that the one grand theme of the preacher is Christ. The power to handle that theme is the Holy Ghost; and the one to whom that theme is to be unfolded is the poor lost sinner.

Now Christ is ever new; the power of the Spirit is ever fresh; the soul’s condition and destiny ever intensely interesting.

Furthermore, it is well for the preacher to bear in mind, on every fresh occasion to rising to preach, that those to whom he preaches are really ignorant of the gospel, and hence he should preach as though it were the very first time his audience had ever heard the message, and the first time he had ever delivered.

To preach the gospel is really to unfold the heart of God, the person and work of Christ; and all this by the present energy of the Holy Ghost, from the exhaustless treasury of holy Scripture.” C H McIntosh, Notes on Numbers, 1869

These are my girls…

Sadie is 18 months

Eloise is 3 years old

Ruthe is 29.

When you have it, you look better than you are. When you don’t have it, you’re better than you look.

Some people are so low key they can’t experience burnout because they’ve never been on fire.

Momentum is created; it does not randomly occur. And it requires our best efforts.

The Momentum Theorem: “Focused Intensity over Time, multiplied by God, creates unstoppable Momentum.”

Focus is in short supply in a distracted, short-attention-span culture.

Focus is lost for two reasons: fear, and greed.

Focus on what you need to do now! Practice, practice, practice.

Intensity must be poured into things that matter.

Don’t put a fish on the car if you’re not going to drive it well!

I hope football fans who paint themselves blue, also put that much intensity into something that matters.

Intensity causes things to move.

Over time means the effort must be sustained. Stick with it. The best book on this: “The Tortoise and the Hare.” Even if you’re slow and ugly, stick with it. Keep going. Winning demands perseverance.

This can’t be done along. God is the one who multiplies our efforts. Get plugged in to Him as a power source.

The result is upstoppable momentum.

Winston Churchill’s famous speech: Never give up, never give up, never, never, never give up!

Five statements worth remembering during your next 50 years of leadership

1) Whatever you do, do more with others and less alone

2) Whenever you do it, emphasize quality not quantity.

3) Wherever you go, do it the same as if you were among those who know you best.

4) Whoever may respond, keep a level head.

5) However long you lead, keep on dripping with gratitude and grace