A Lasting Legacy:

On February 22, 1943—in Munich, Germany, two siblings made the ultimate sacrifice on the altar of conviction. They risked and lost, fought and failed, but not without leaving a lasting imprint.

Their names were Hans and Sophie Scholl.

Birth of the White Rose

Formerly enthusiastic about the Third Reich, the siblings soon realized the brutality and oppression of their own government. By the time World War II broke out, they’d turned from supporters to resistors. And they were students at the University of Munich when they formed the White Rose, a student-led resistance movement.

“We fight with our words,” Sophie said; and in June 1942, the first anti-Nazi leaflet appeared in Munich mailboxes. It was an eloquent plea for resistance and truth, aimed at the millions of Germans who shut their eyes to the brutalities enacted by their dictator. Each member of the White Rose understood the crime—high treason—and the punishment meted out to such offenders. “We were all aware we were risking our necks,” one member said.

A second leaflet soon followed, highlighting the mass deportation and killing of Jews, which they called “a crime . . . unparalleled in all of history.” A third, fourth, and fifth came in quick succession, landing in mailboxes, phone booths, and other public places around Munich and beyond. “Hitler cannot win the war, he can only prolong it,” the leaflets insisted, as Germany faced staggering losses on the Eastern Front during the Battle of Stalingrad.

With every pamphlet the risk of discovery increased, as the Gestapo scrambled to investigate the mysterious White Rose.

But to the Scholls, it was a risk worth taking. Raised Lutheran, they held deep convictions about the stand Christians should take against injustice. They quoted Scripture, along with the writings of prominent Christian thinkers, in every leaflet.

“Somebody, after all, had to make a start,” Sophie said. “What we wrote and said is also believed by many others. They just don’t dare express themselves as we did.”

Hans agreed: “It’s high time that Christians made up their minds to do something. . . . What are we going to show in the way of resistance . . . when all this terror is over? We will be standing empty-handed. We will have no answer when we are asked: What did you do about it?”

Final Days

February 18, 1943, dawned bright and sunny as Hans and Sophie walked to the university. Hans carried a suitcase; Sophie, a briefcase. Inside lay nearly 2,000 copies of their sixth leaflet.

It was quiet, the students all in class. Hearts pounding, shoes tapping on the marble floor, Hans and Sophie began depositing their call to action. Seconds before the lecture hall doors opened, Sophie took the remaining leaflets and pushed them over the banister, sending them fluttering to the hall below. The siblings were spotted by a janitor and arrested on the spot.

Four long days and nights of interrogation followed. At first they denied the charges, but as solid evidence pointed in their direction, they confessed and took full responsibility, hoping to protect the other members of the White Rose. Unfortunately, a piece of paper Hans had in his pocket incriminated his friend, Christoph Probst, an active member of the student resistance. He too was arrested and brought in for interrogation.

Sophie’s interrogator later reported:

Until the bitter end, Sophie and Hans Scholl managed a bearing that must be called unique. Both [said] their activities had only one purpose: preventing an even greater calamity from overtaking Germany and, if possible, helping to save the lives of hundreds of thousands. . . . They were convinced their sacrifice was not in vain.

On Monday, February 22, Hans, Sophie, and Christoph went before the German People’s Court, infamous for condemning hundreds suspected of subversive activities. The verdict was read.

Guilty.

The siblings were immediately transferred to Stadelheim Prison to be executed by beheading later that day. Contrary to prison rules, Hans and Sophie were allowed a brief visit with their parents. They wept, embraced one final time, and heard their father say, “I’m proud of both of you.”

The whole prison and their interrogators were deeply shaken and impressed by Hans and Sophie’s courage and deep faith in God, even in the face of death. “They bore themselves with marvelous bravery,” one guard recalled.

At 5 p.m., Sophie was led to the execution chamber. Supposedly her last words were, “God, you are my refuge into eternity.”

Hans followed. With his last breath, he cried out a final word of resistance: “Long live freedom!”

We Will Remember

Hans and Sophie believed in freedom for all humanity, and in the importance of speaking truth. Sophie’s favorite Bible verse was James 1:22: “Be doers of the word and not hearers only.”

Now, 75 years later, Christians still need to be doers of the Word.

Anti-Semitism is increasingly—and alarmingly—on the rise. Acts of genocide happen every day. More than 27 million individuals are enslaved, in both labor and sex trafficking. Millions of babies are legally murdered year after year. Religious liberty and freedom of speech are slowly slipping away, and Christians around the world are tortured and killed for Christ every day.

All around me, I see Christians with the ability and potential to speak truth and fight for justice. But in place of action, there is often apathy. Overshadowing the call to make a difference is fear. Fear of how much it will cost us. Fear of ridicule. Fear of persecution. Fear of standing alone.

“How can we expect righteousness to prevail,” Sophie once asked, “when there is hardly anyone willing to give himself up individually for a righteous cause?”

In our contemporary culture, the pressure to conform to the status quo is crippling. It takes tremendous courage to be the first to take a stand and speak out. But one person willing to be first is often all it takes. In their final moments together, Sophie told her parents, “What we did will make waves.” Our actions can have the same effect. As one speaks out, and another joins, the ripple becomes a wave and the wave becomes a flood.

After Hans and Sophie’s death, despite being more aware than ever of the risk, the remaining members of the White Rose released yet another leaflet. It reached farther and was read by more individuals than any of the previous ones. And it displayed in bold type: “Despite everything, their spirit lives on!”

May their spirit live on in our generation, as we—to quote Sophie—”stand up for what [we] believe in, even if it means standing alone.”

4 Lessons From Charles Spurgeon's Conversion:

On January 6, 1850, a 15-year-old young man wandered into the Primitive Methodist Chapel of Colchester. A snowstorm prevented him from attending church with his father. Apparently, the snow was so severe that the pastor of this little Methodist chapel didn't even show up that day! That young man huslted inside still carrying his burden of sin that he did not realize was soon to be lifted. "At last, a very thin-looking man, a shoemaker, or tailor, or something of that sort, went up into the pulpit to preach." This man preached the text of Isaiah 45:22 and exhorted this teenager, one Charles Haddon Spurgeon, to look to Christ and be saved. This 'sermon' lasted all of about 10 minutes, but see how Spurgeon recounts the impact of what this man said to him that morning:

lifting up his hands, [the man] shouted, as only a Primitive Methodist could do, "Young man, look to Jesus Christ. Look! Look! Look! You have nothin' to do but to look and live." I saw at once the way of salvation. I know not what else he said,—I did not take much notice of it,—I was so possessed with that one thought. Like as when the brazen serpent was lifted up, the people only looked and were healed, so it was with me. I had been waiting to do fifty things, but when I heard that word, "Look!" what a charming word it seemed to me! Oh! I looked until I could almost have looked my eyes away. There and then the cloud was gone, the darkness had rolled away, and that moment I saw the sun; and I could have risen that instant, and sung with the most enthusiastic of them, of the precious blood of Christ, and the simple faith which looks alone to Him. Oh, that somebody had told me this before, "Trust Christ, and you shall be saved." Yet it was, no doubt, all wisely ordered, and now I can say,— "Ever since by faith I saw the stream Thy flowing wounds supply, Redeeming love has been my theme, And shall be till I die."

It's probable you've heard this conversion story before as it has been written about many times and was spoken of in Spurgeon's own sermons and works quite frequently. But as I consider this wonderful story once again, I think of 4 important lessons we can take away from it to apply to our own lives and ministries today:

The Persistence of Godly Impressions

While it is true that Spurgeon attributes his conversion to a single moment in time, January 6, 1850, it is also true that he gives credit to godly impressions that happened long before then to bring him to that point of repentance and faith on that cold snowy morning. Particularly, he gives credit to his mother's impact on his early years. She would pray for him, instruct him in the Scriptures, and implore he and his siblings to rest their souls upon Jesus.

What an encouragement this is to parents and others who are faithfully and persistently sharing the gospel with others! Persistence pays off. No, we may not always witness the fruit of our labors but we can believe that it is important to impress upon those around us the truth of the gospel and implore them to seek the mercy of Christ for the forgiveness of their sins. Perhaps you've done this 9,999 times. But who knows whether or not the 10,000th time will be the time the sinner turns to Jesus?

Truly we believe in the necessity of God's gracious calling upon a sinner's life but we also know God works through means. And years of being called to repentance and faith by his own mother prepared Spurgeon for that day when the gospel light finally broke through. Keep pressing on! Be persistent in godly impressions upon those around you. It matters.

The Providence of Great Inconvenience 

I believe in the meticulous providence of God. That not a single snowflake falls but under His sovereign will and guidance. A snowstorm! How inconvenient! What work had to be stopped that day! How many souls were prevented from attending their desired place of worship that Sunday! And yet, through this great inconvenience, the greatest baptist preacher in the history of Christianity, was brought to faith in Christ.

The point? Let us be ever ready to see God's hand in the everyday things in our lives. From the snowstorms to the flat tires. Have you considered whether or not you might not be placed in a certain situation for 'such a time as this (Esther 4:14)'? This poor 'shoemaker' (as Spurgeon called him) didn't wake up on that Sunday prepared to give a sermon, and yet he rose to the occasion and exhorted his hearers to look to Christ and be saved. Wow. You don't know what today holds, what the weekend holds, what next month holds. But will you be ready to rise to the occasion as God gives opportunity and in particular be ready to point sinners to Jesus?

God knows no inconveniences, only plans. What might you do with the extra time you have to spend at the mechanic? Or the late day at work? Or the long line at Walmart because they only have 2 checkers working today? Let us see God's hand in these things trustusth His providence.

The Power of God-breathed Instruction

Imagine it's not 1850, but January 6, 2019. Spurgeon is snowed out of his normal place of worship and wanders into an American church (I know, long journey across the Atlantic!). What does he hear? 5 steps to be a better you? A few jokes, a couple of pointed illustrations, and then some good advice? Perhaps the atmosphere is "better" structured with music and comfortable seating. Perhaps the speaking is "better" - eloquent, and more polished.

But the truth is, the power of God doesn't rest in any of these things. God's power rests in His own God-breathed instruction - in His Word. The Bible. Genesis to Revelation. This primitive methodist wasn't sure what to do that morning, so he did all he knew: open the bible and spoke directly from its life-giving streams. There was no sermon preparation. No catchy title. No alliterated points. It was just the exhortation of God's own holy word.

I obviously think study is important, and I'm a fan of alliteration sometimes (as you can tell!), but let us be reminded that these things aren't where God's power is found in calling sinners to repentance. Seminary has its place. But any Believer can call a person to repentance by simply using God's own God-breathed instruction. It's the Bible, folks. Read it. Know it. Use it more in everyday conversations. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ. Creative gospel presentations have their place. But so does simply quoting what the bible says. Opening it up at work or over lunch or coffee and showing the truth of the gospel. What training do you need to open the bible and read it? You can do this with your children. You can do this with your coworkers. You can do this with anyone who will listen! Yes, you! You can do it because the power doesn't rest in you, but in God's Word.

Apologetics has its place, and I get excited too about archeological discoveries that back up the Bible. But at the end of the day, scientific facts don't change sinners' hearts. It is the Holy Spirit through the Word of God. So, stay faithful. Stay in the Book. Keep trusting that God will use it.

The Priority of Gospel Invitation

If we haven't invited sinners to close with Christ, we haven't preached the gospel. We have a wonderful example in this conversion narrative of a true gospel invitation. This primitive methodist exhorted his hearers to look to Christ and be saved!

He did not play 15 verses of Just As I Am. He did not have anyone close their eyes and raise their hands. He did not have anyone sign a card or even come up front. He simply invited, pleaded, and commanded his listeners to look to Christ and be saved!

There are actually ministers today that believe if you don't have an 'altar call' you haven't really extended an invitation. Spurgeon would disagree. The gospel invitation isn't inviting someone to an altar but inviting them to close with Christ. The danger of an 'altar call' is organizing your whole service to build up to this 'main event.' I've actually read and heard of well-known pastors making this point. But when this happens, emotional manipulation often becomes rampant. None of us have control over who makes decisions. But we do have control over faithfully sharing Scripture and issuing heartfelt exhortations from it.

What if instead of making services about the altar, the priority of the gospel invitation was attached to the exhortation from Scripture? If instead of building up to a crescendo of an 'altar call', we invited people right then to close with Christ in faith? My main point here is to not rely on the right mood or music to call sinners to repentance. Do so in your gospel exhortations! Tell them, plead with them, command them to repent and believe the gospel. To look to Christ and be saved! You can exhort that person God has put on your heart right now. You can ask them to trust Jesus today. You can text them or call them or stop by and see them. They don't need an altar. They need Jesus.

As the world continued to turn on that cold snowy January day, God was ordering each moment to graciously save Charles Haddon Spurgeon. A wretched sinner who deserved only hell and wrath, was brought to Christ as God issued His effectual call through the proclamation of His own word. Spurgeon would sadly pass away only 42 years later at the young age of 57. But any person the least bit knowledgeable of his life would say that his short life was a life well lived. He was a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season. And with a man like Spurgeon, that season isn't over yet. His life is still bearing fruit. There are still many great things we can learn from him today, including these 4 important lessons from his conversion.

10 Reasons Why Pastors Need Pastors:

Once a month I meet with a group of youth pastors in my city and every month I leave our meeting equipped and encouraged to continue to press on in ministry. Below you will find 10 reasons why pastors need pastors.

1. Because our hearts need shepherding just like everyday Christians.

Too often, congregations don’t like to hear that their pastor is merely a Christian in the middle of his sanctification who has a unique calling to serve the church. Friends, your pastor is not a pope, though I suspect some members tend to view him as the high and holy pontiff. The pastor is not the sinless Son of God. He is not a spiritual superstar. And he needs other men in similar circumstances to help him with his soul as iron sharpens iron (Prov. 27:17).

2. Because we sometimes need wisdom outside our own intimate circle.

If a pastor isn’t careful, ministry can become an echo chamber in which he constantly hears only his own voice or those of people who surround him and are in a position of always having to affirm him and his ideas—out of fear or flattery or worse motives. This spotlights the genius of God’s design that calls for plural leadership in the church and is a primary reason elders must not be “yes men.”

I’ve seen too many Christian leaders surround themselves with men who are always affirming, always approving—sycophants—and the results are predictable.

Pastors sometimes need to seek wisdom—or a frank voice—particularly in the midst of difficult circumstances, outside his own intimate circle. He needs other men to be honest with him out of love for his church and his soul.

3. Because we have blind spots.

As the people in our pews provide a vital means of sanctification by living out the “one-anothers” of Scripture together, brother pastors help each other see areas of needed change and growth in sanctification. We typically don’t see our own sins and weaknesses very well. We need other pastor friends to help us, who love us enough to tell us the truth about less obvious leadership flaws and besetting sins.

4. Because we need others to preach the gospel to us.

“Preach the gospel to yourself daily” is advice that its both popular these days and it is necessary. However, pastors need other men to preach the gospel to them as well. As Martyn Lloyd-Jones said so well, I’m always preaching to myself, but I don’t always listen to the gospel when I preach it.

5. Because even our Bible heroes had mentors.

Timothy had Paul. Mark had Barnabas. The disciples had Jesus. Every pastor needs a mentor who’s been in the foxhole longer than he has.

6. Because even our heroes from church history had mentors.

Luther had von Staupitz. Calvin had Bucer. Zwingli had Bullinger. Knox had Calvin. Sproul had Gerstner. MacArthur had his father, Jack. Every pastor needs to develop a close relationship with a man who is more experienced and wiser than himself.

7. Because ministry is difficult and the demon of discouragement is always as close to you as the day after Sunday.

At least ten thousand pastors write their letter of resignation—at least mentally—every single Monday, which is to say discouragement is as much a part of ministry as intercessory prayer. Pastor, you need a Barnabas and you need fellowship with him regularly.

8. Because someone else’s experience can be your best teacher.

Every pastor knows the feeling: He’s facing a situation that’s brand-new to him. He’s never been there or done that. But he knows another pastor friend who has. I once had a member whose marriage was falling apart, but in an odd way I had never before encountered. A close pastor friend had a member go through virtually the same odd sort of marriage implosion, and his council proved invaluable in helping me try to minister to the heartbroken man in my church.

9. Because we don’t always heed our own preaching.

Sometimes, I get tired of hearing my own voice in the pulpit. I can grow weary of taking to heart the truths I preach. I need to hear other preachers. My soul needs to be fed.

10. Because I need a sympathetic fellow pastor to remind me to take a day off.

Pastors need pastors to remind them that pastoral ministry is not their most fundamental calling and that it is OK to take a day off.

May it please the Lord to give us all mentors and fellow pastors who we can meet with and encourage/equip each other to press on in the ministry.

You Can't Facebook Live Church:

Last year, the Georgetown University athletic department tweeted:

With the world trending toward Virtual Reality (VR), we ask you to take a step back and experience the Georgetown Hoops Actual Reality (AR) Seating Section!

Those who purchased tickets in the “Actual Reality” seating section were asked to leave their phones at home or drop them off at a phone check-in station. Phoneless fans were encouraged to “actually talk face to face” and—get this—watch the game.

Just as attending a basketball game has changed in our hyperconnected age, so has attending church. With increasing frequency, churches are encouraging folks to “attend” church virtually through an online livestream. Although a livestream can be a great tool to serve people unable to attend, it can’t replace the experience of actually going to church.

Blessings of a Livestream

My church has a livestream, and it helps many people. I think of one church member whose health legitimately prevents her from coming to worship with the church family. Every Sunday she has her iPad locked and loaded with the livestream, and for her, it’s a great blessing to remain somewhat connected to her church family. In other instances, people traveling overseas have been able to listen online, and EMTs have been able to tune in when work has prevented their attendance. For such scenarios, and probably a thousand others, the livestream is truly a gift.

But don’t be mistaken: Church isn’t something you can get solely online.

Blessings of Attending Church

In the Bible, “church” doesn’t refer to an event, but a people. The church is a family that you belong to by faith in Jesus Christ. When you trust him, you get his family, the church (for better or worse!). The event of Sunday morning worship with preaching, prayer, singing, and fellowship is what the church does when it gathers, but family is what the church is.

As a family, the New Testament authors call believers to love one another, bear with one another, forgive one another, and more than 50 additional “one another” commands. The author of Hebrews writes to Christians: “Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another” (Heb. 10:24–25). When we neglect to meet together—now easier than ever before with livestreaming—we’re missing out on the “one anothering” that occurs when the church gathers as family.

Virtual attendance also fosters a consumer mentality. Yes, you can consume a sermon and stay “in the know” via livestream, but you won’t be able to fully participate in the joys, sorrows, and God-intended discomforts of family life. Church shouldn’t be something we consume but something we participate in. To some degree, church is supposed to be uncomfortable, since the church body is called to love fellow sinner-saints, exercise patience, gentleness, and sacrificial service, and walk together through the messiness of family life in a fallen world. Like physical exercise, discomfort is part of the plan to grow us.

Don’t Trade Actual Church for Virtual Church

To put it bluntly, virtual church isn’t church. When church members livestream Sunday worship because it’s their only option, it’s still the church family’s responsibility and privilege to visit, pray with, and care for them so that they can stay as connected as possible.

For everyone who can attend, however, it’s my hope that you’ll find a local church family to join, and after experiencing the goodness of church family, you won’t want to trade it for virtual reality. The next time you’re tempted to stay in your house slippers and sweatpants on Sunday morning and tune in via the livestream, go ahead and wear your sweats and slippers to church. Choose the actual reality.

The Power & Influence of VBS:

By: Russel Moore

This year, at some point, a gathering of influential people will assemble to decide the future of life and culture as we know it. I’m not referring to the Supreme Court or the United Nations. I am not referring to the White House cabinet table or a congressional leadership caucus.

I’m referring to Vacation Bible School.

That’s because Jesus understood, and understands, something that this social Darwinian fallen world of ours never does—children are more important than the pomp and splendor of what passes for “powerful” and “influential” in this post-Eden universe (Matthew 21:15; Mark 10:13-16).

The ministries of local churches in teaching the Bible to the children of Christian families and communicating the gospel to neighborhood children who have never heard it is among the most important and effective aspects of Christian ministry today.

I say that as someone who, I am quite sure, would not be in ministry today if not for Vacation Bible School. I have met numbers of people, too numerous to count, who have a similar story. They were found by Jesus at Vacation Bible School.

Or they were called to a ministry there. Or they had their eyes opened to the glory of God in global missions there. Or they learned a Scripture song that embedded in their memories and resurfaced just when they needed it most.

The common factor in all these stories is that these VBS gatherings, so important to so many of us, were not especially “slick” or “cutting edge” or “cool.” We marched into my little church for opening assembly every morning not to some market-tested jingle, but to the majestic strains of “Onward, Christian Soldiers.”

My pastor, who greeted us there was not some “relatable-to-children” communicator. He wore a suit and read from the Bible. That was the genius of it all. We were taken seriously as people who belonged to Christ, or who could belong to Christ, and therefore could be held responsible to know and share the old, old story.

We heard about missions as though we were being trained to carry on the Great Commission ourselves, which, of course, we were.

Vacation Bible School is needed now more than ever, at a time when more and more children and their families have no access to the gospel, at a time when biblical illiteracy and missions apathy is widespread even among “churched” populations, much less the general population.

Sometime this year, yet another new generation of children will march into a church building, or maybe a neighborhood park pavilion, or a rented school for Vacation Bible School. They might have different snacks than the flower-shaped butter cookies with the hole in the middle and red Kool-Aid that my peers and I had.

They will, no doubt, have different songs and some different games. But they will hear the same gospel from the same Bible. And they’ll hear it, as I did, from people who love them, and who picture through that the love of God for them and for the world.

Those children are not just “the future” in the way the world often speaks of such things. They are the future in the sense that those who come to faith in Christ are joint-heirs with Christ and heirs of a new creation, forever (Rom. 8:17).

Vacation Bible School, then, at your church, is more important than an international summit of global political leaders or economists or technology entrepreneurs. The devil trembles at that. Jesus is the ultimate King of the cosmos, and He welcomes the little children to join Him.

You ask me how I know that? I learned it in Vacation Bible School.

The Secret to Living Well in a Scary World:

It’s a multibillion-dollar industry. It fuels the internet. It dominates political campaigns, talk radio, and the evening news. It sits on therapist couches and speaks on Facebook feeds. No respecter of persons, it steals sleep from feeble beggars and mighty kings.

What is this pervasive, inescapable, suffocating phenomenon?

Fear.

Human beings have always been scaredy-cats. That observation is not surprising. What is surprising is that even we—evolved “modern” people—are so scared.

On paper, we should have fewer fears than any generation before us. We’re surrounded by security systems, advanced medicine, organic food, and endless information on a glowing rectangle in our pockets.

Yet we are deeply, miserably afraid. Far from loosening the chokehold of fear, the material blessings of our age seem only to have tightened it.

Illusion of Control

The achievements of modern life—medicinal, technological, and otherwise—have given us an ever-increasing sense of control. Actually, more than a sense. We really do enjoy more control over more aspects of life than ever before. We’re so accustomed to a convenient, custom-designed, there’s-an-app-for-that quality of life that we’re more shocked when things are hard than when they’re easy.

Far from loosening the chokehold of fear, the material blessings of our age seem only to have tightened it.


Without realizing it, this increasing sense of control can begin to feel natural, intuitive, right. Not a gift, mind you—a right. And we start to believe that if we can simply manage our fears, they will never master us.

We are wrong, and we are miserable.

But it’s even worse. Addicted to what we can control, we extend the borders of our kingdoms into realms we can’t control. We try to control circumstances, but trials rudely show up uninvited. We try to control people, but they don’t stick to our wonderful plan for their lives. We try to control our future, but he who sits in the heavens always seems to laugh (Ps. 2:4).

From Scientism to Selfism

In recent decades, as modernity has given birth to postmodernity, our culture’s reigning authorities have shifted, with the sovereignty of science bowing to the sovereignty of the self. Of course, the sovereign self isn’t a new actor on history’s stage; we’ve been climbing up God’s throne to topple him ever since Genesis 3. Nevertheless, there is something genuinely new about our cultural moment in 2019. Fifty years ago, if you asked your unbelieving neighbor where to find truth, he likely would’ve pointed you to science. Ask the question today, and he’ll point you to . . . you. Believe in yourself. Be true to yourself. Follow your heart. From doctoral seminars to Disney films, the religion of expressive individualism dominates the Western world. I don’t know if René Descartes (“I think, therefore I am”) would be proud, but DNA tests show that he’s the father.

What does all this have to do with our fears? Much in every way, as Paul might say. If you really are “the master of your fate and the captain of your soul,” then everything is riding on you. Don’t crash.

Not only do we have more stuff than ever—and therefore more than ever to lose—but we’ve promoted ourselves to a position for which we’re embarrassingly underqualified. The job description included omnicompetence, and we were arrogant enough to think we’d be a good fit. So we spend our days playing God, trying to figure out the dials while steering the ship.

No wonder we’re paranoid.

Stand-Alone God

So what’s the answer to our dilemma? How can we disentangle ourselves from the fears that won’t leave us alone? One answer is the doctrine of inerrancy. Yes, inerrancy. Simply put, if your Bible is not wholly true, then you should be terrified. Why? Because if your Bible is not wholly true, you have no reason to trust that the One governing your life is both great and good.

I’m so grateful that my college campus minister, loved to emphasize these twin truths from Scripture. “God can and God cares,” he would say. I didn’t realize it at the time, but in those simple words he was distinguishing biblical Christianity from every religion on the market. Protestant liberalism, for example, offers a God who is good but not great. He cares, but he can’t. He’s a nice buddy, an experienced life coach, even a world-class psychotherapist, but ultimately he’s just “the man upstairs.” Meanwhile, other religions such as Islam offer the opposite: a God who is great but not entirely good. A God who can, but perhaps doesn’t care.

If your Bible is not wholly true, you have no reason to trust that the One governing your life is both great and good.

But when we open our Bibles, something unprecedented happens. It’s stunning, really. We encounter a living Lord who is both great and good, sovereign and kind, who can and who cares.

If God were only good, I would go to bed frightened. How could I worship someone who, bless his heart, means well and is doing his best? But I would also go to bed frightened if he were only sovereign. What assurance is there in knowing he’s mighty if he’s not merciful? What comfort is there in a deity who doesn’t care enough to plunge into human pain? What hope is there in a God without scars?

Rival Fears

Most of our anxieties are species of one great fear: the fear of man. We’re terrified of being rejected, embarrassed, finally exposed for who we really are.

In his 2005 commencement address at Kenyon College, the late American novelist David Foster Wallace captured this universal, even primal, human dynamic. Wallace was not a Christian, and yet his words struck a profound spiritual chord:

The compelling reason for maybe choosing some sort of God or spiritual-type thing to worship . . . is that pretty much anything else you worship will eat you alive. If you worship money and things, if they are where you tap real meaning in life, then you will never feel you have enough. Worship your body and beauty and sexual allure and you will always feel ugly, and when time and age start showing, you will die a million deaths before they finally grieve you. Worship power, and you will end up feeling weak and afraid, and you will need ever more power over others to numb you to your own fear. Worship your intellect, and you will end up feeling like a fraud, always on the verge of being found out. But the insidious thing about these forms of worship is . . . they’re unconscious. They are default settings.

Paralyzing fears over poverty and aging and weakness and exposure and countless other threats are due, ultimately, to disordered doxology. Our worship is misplaced. Rather than enjoying God in his rightful place—the sun around which everything in life orbits—we dislodge him and replace him with a mirror. And without him as our gravitational center, everything spins off in a thousand directions. Such is the insanity of idolatry. No wonder life feels so chaotic, so exhausting.

According to the Scriptures, we fear man so much because we fear God so little. Fearing the Lord is the ultimate key to understanding (Prov. 1:7) and the antidote to anxiety.

We fear man so much because we fear God so little.

To be clear, we don’t fear him because he’s mean but because he is holy. He’s not a dictator or traffic cop in the sky; he’s the Lord of love. He is beautiful. As the Puritan John Flavel observed, “Godly fear does not arise from a perception of God as hazardous, but glorious.” The One who made us and saved us is worth our esteem, our reverence, our awe. And the counterintuitive beauty of grace is that his forgiveness woos us into even greater fear (Ps. 130:4).

The Lamb Is My Shepherd

In Luke 12, Jesus exhorts his disciples not to be anxious, since their Father in heaven is simultaneously great and good. Then he utters one of the most beautiful statements in all the Gospels: “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom” (Luke 12:32).

Did you catch it? Shepherd. Father. King. One tiny verse, three massive truths. The God we meet on the pages of Scripture—and only that God—is the Shepherd who seeks us, the Father who adopts us, and the King who loves us.

And 2,000 years ago, in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Shepherd King became the Lamb Slain. As comforting as it is to hear “The LORD is my shepherd” (Ps. 23:1), there is something even better: “The Lamb is my shepherd” (Rev. 7:17). The One who crafted you in his image is the One you pursued you, lived for you, died for you, rose for you, intercedes for you, and will return for you if you’re resting in him.

Unbroken Streak

Do you know what is the most repeated command in the whole Bible? “Fear not.” I imagine that’s because God knew we would need constant reminding—even as 21st-century sophisticates with smartphones in our pockets.

Human history is the long story of God’s faithfulness to scaredy-cats. He has never failed one of his own—and he won’t end his streak with you. Hasn’t he been faithful to you over the course of 10,000 yesterdays? You can trust him for tomorrow.

And as you look to Jesus Christ, the author and perfecter of your faith, don’t forget to listen. You just might hear the chains of fear start to crack.

How To Kill A Church:

Want to fatten a church for slaughter? The steps are below.

This is a true story.

1. Launch a “church for people who don’t like the church” with a dynamic leader with big ideas and self-help teaching.

2. Care less about biblical depth, discipleship, and leadership character than inspirational messages, excitement, and creativity. Make sure the success is built around the leader’s “brand” so that he and the church are largely synonymous.

3. See the place attract large crowds.

4. See the success go to the leader’s head. Make excuses and accommodations as his short temper, control issues, and lack of accountability begin to take their toll. Accept the loss of numerous quality leaders as the collateral damage necessary to win the attendance war in your city’s ministry marketplace.

5. Continue staking everything on a “killer weekend experience” to the expense of discipleship, community, and mission. Marginalize (or get rid of) anyone who does not get the vision.

6. Watch the leader eventually crash and burn.

7. As the church hemorrhages attendees who were there for “the brand,” fail to learn your lesson and hire a similarly dynamic leader to replace the one who’s fallen. (Make sure he’s at least nice.)

8. Make sure only yes-men ascend to leadership as the new leader tries to rebuild a better version of what crashed the first time.

9. Watch as the new leader drifts further and further away from biblical teaching and more into the world of quasi-spiritual wanderings. Make sure anyone who sees red flags in occasional New Age-type teaching and embrace of heterodox spiritualities can’t do anything about it. When those people leave, don’t care.

10. Watch as liberal theology takes root and slowly drives more and more people out the door. As money dwindles, and staff along with it, take no steps to correct course. Go “all in.”

11. Follow the “new kind of Christianity” all the way to barely-Christianity, and close the doors on what used to be a thriving megachurch.

12. Wonder what went wrong.

This isn’t the only way to kill a church. Some churches dwindle and die through no fault of the leaders. But if you want to kill a church, this is a time-tested way to do it.

By: Jared Wilson

Parents, Set the Pattern:

“Is tomorrow church day?” My 5 year old asked me this as we were getting ready for bed on a Saturday night. While I am pretty sure my wife has taught her the days of the week, she still just refers to days either as school days or church day. I am not sure how she classifies Saturday. She asks me this most Saturday nights and some Friday nights. And on those Saturday nights I tell her, “Yes, tomorrow is church day. We will wake up and we will go to church.”

For now, she likes church. She likes her kids' class where they learn about different stories in the Bible. She likes the crafts that they do. She likes to dress up and play with the other kids. I am pretty sure she likes getting the donuts that our church has every Sunday the best of all, though.

But I hope that this pattern in our lives settles deeper than just right now. I hope that Sundays being church days becomes an ingrained part of who she is. The patterns that are set at an early age can be patterns that will run throughout someone’s life. That is my prayer for my son and daughters. That the pattern of weekly worshiping with a fellowship of believers becomes the norm and that not do so would be weird and unthinkable to them.

I know that when they get older there could be more of a fight to get them to church. But once again, maybe the pattern that we have ingrained in them will help us. Maybe a pattern where there is no doubt about where we go on Sundays will make them not question it even if they are not feeling it. Maybe this pattern in our family will help us continue to get our family to church. When they think there is no other option, they might not push against it. If they do push against it, the pattern of behavior is on our side.

Before I know it I will be sending my children off into the world. Whether to college or into adulthood and their career, they will be heading out to forge their own path. I hope that this pattern stays with them. That they go to college and make a point to attend church on a Sunday. That they move to a new city and look for a church that they can invest in and feels like a fit. I desire them to know the value of the local assembly of believers. I desire for them to cherish walking with a church and sitting under its teaching. I desire them to grow in their walk with Christ through the investment of a local body of believers.

It can all start with that pattern. The pattern that we are living right now. There is more to it than just the pattern, but the pattern sets us up and supports the truth. The pattern augments the texts that point us to the theological truth that drive home the need for being connected to the local body.

So set the pattern. You might slip here and there. But set the pattern and continue in it.  

Biblical Manhood and Unhealthy Masculinity:

Twenty-seven-year-old male, unkempt facial hair, obsessed with video games, frequent consumer of pornography, lives at home, part time job, has taken a few classes at a community college, not sure what he wants to do in life.

Twenty-three-year-old male, fifth year at a state university, drinks heavily on the weekends, loves watching sports, works out five days a week, carefully manages his Tinder profile, not looking for a serious relationship.

Meet the “adultescent” male. He is in no hurry to grow up and has found ways of enjoying many of the privileges of adulthood without incurring any of the costs. He has plenty of masculinity, but it has run amok. Unshaped and uncultivated, his masculine impulses have become toxic and turned him into a “man-child,” a man in age and stature but a boy in maturity and self-control.

The Answer to Masculinity

“Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love.” 1 Cor. 16:13–14

Masculinity isn’t the problem in the above examples; it is the raw material. It will be expressed, either in healthy or unhealthy ways. This means the answer isn’t to try and suppress masculinity or to feminize it, but to form it into something useful. Masculinity is the raw lump of metal; biblical manhood is the forged sword. The work comes in shaping and molding the unbridled masculinity of adolescence into a force unleashed for good upon the world.

So how can the gospel shape masculinity into something useful for the kingdom of God? Let’s consider three components of masculinity, their modern shortcuts, and the Bible’s answer.

Three Driving Forces

1. Competence and Mastery
Young men are eager to be good at something. In times past, their ability to master a skill or trade was the doorkeeper to setting out on their own, getting married, and having the independence that they so desperately craved. Competence and mastery give a young man a sense of self-worth, help him participate in conversations, and shape him into a valuable member of society.

Most young men I know are masters of something. Unfortunately, many of the things mastered have no value in the workplace and offer no real skill in adult life. I’ve met students with encyclopedic knowledge of fantasy universes, musicians, sports teams, video games; the list goes on and on. The danger is that these easier pursuits can keep them from mastering the difficult things that are far more valuable in the workplace and in their own lives.

While Jesus is certainly unique in terms of His divine-human identity, he nevertheless provides us with a good model in this (and other areas). Jesus, empowered by the Spirit, worked a trade in his early years, mastered the Word of God, and grew in wisdom and in relationships (Luke 2:52). He focused on the essentials, and He didn’t let distractions keep him from communing with his Father. When the time came for him to begin his ministry, he was prepared and competent to do the work he was called to.

2. Challenge, Testing, and Achievement
If you want to get middle or high school guys interested in something, make it a competition. Young men are wired to test their mettle and see how they measure up. They want to conquer challenges in whatever shape or form they find them. This often leads to risky behavior, where young men are trying to find the limits of what they are capable of facing, but as noted earlier, the world needs risk-taking men!

Media, and video games in particular, have a way of satiating this impulse without any real risk or reward. The thrill of victory from the comfort of your own couch! Winning that first game of Fortnite after dozens of attempts lights up the male brain’s reward centers and gives an amazing rush. The problem is that these shortcuts to real achievement don’t teach young men the perseverance and toughness needed to succeed in the real world.

Since young men long for this, older men need to step up and provide opportunities for young men to test themselves and be initiated into the fellowship. Experiences like the one described here are great ways for fathers, or other male mentors, to usher young men into manhood.

Picture Jesus in the wilderness for forty days, tempted and tested, His Father preparing Him for the years ahead. Jesus faced down constant opposition in His public ministry, from His confrontations with the Pharisees to His casting out demons, and ultimately setting His face toward Jerusalem to be abandoned by His friends and hung on a cross. Jesus shows us how to enter into hardship for the joy on the other side.

3. Love and its Pursuit
With some degree of competence and a willingness to take risk, many (though not all) young men will want to pursue a mate. They initiate with the woman, which requires vulnerability and sacrifice, and open themselves up to rejection. Biblical dating requires men, not boys, in order to work!

It is here that our culture is especially destructive. Porn and the “hookup culture” have made sexual satisfaction easy for the man and risk-free. A young man is no longer driven to improve in order to find a spouse but instead can find free and unlimited satisfaction online. Men have found ways to get what they want without commitment, which robs them of an essential part of true manhood.

Jesus could not offer a stronger contrast. Full commitment, total sacrifice, total vulnerability, and total commitment to His bride. Instead of taking advantage of women, Jesus exalts His bride.  Instead of being obsessed with receiving, Jesus came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life for His bride (Matt 20:28; Eph 5:25).

The World Needs Christian Men

As the much-discussed Gillette commercial recently highlighted, the key to restraining the evil actions of bad men is for good men to step up. When good men do nothing (or don’t exist), wicked men will rise up and wield their power to hurt, abuse, and control those around them to suit their pleasure. We must be intentionally training up young men to step into roles that God has laid out for them. The stakes are high.