From One Degree to Another

Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, D.C. (pastored by Mark Dever) recently had a women’s conference featuring Noel Piper (John Piper’s wife) speaking. The audio of all sessions (including Q & A) is online.

I’m on a break of sorts from the normal blogging scene. Yesterday, 6 of our church leaders and I left Hutchinson to come to Tan-Tar-A in Osage Beach, MO for a retreat. We had a great trip and good fellowship yesterday.

We were here to be a part (of all things) of the Missouri Baptist Pastor’s Conference. My good friend, Joe Braden, was serving as President this year. He was able to bring in the men of 9 Marks for a day long seminar on “Building Healthy Churches.” This conference featured the excellent teaching of Mark Dever, Matt Schmucker and Jonathan Leeman. I thought the day was very encouraging. I bumped into a friend of mine from elemntary school (among a lot of other friends). This friend from elementary school, Scott Lamb, is liveblogging the conference.

Our retreat will continue tonight with what I hope is God-honoring conversation and reflection over supper, then a drive home tomorrow. Continue to pray for us.

(HT for the Link to Scott’s Liveblog: Tim Ellsworth)

I was walking through the public library recently and I saw a copy of Popular Mechanics on the shelf with an intersting headline. It read: Popular Mechanics list of 25 Things Every Man Should Know. I was intrigued by this list, mainly because I am not skilled in many of these things. I was reminded of a conversation I had a few years ago with some men. We were looking at Thomas Watson’s book, The Godly Man’s Picture (drawn with a Scriptural pencil). We had been meeting for weeks studying the various characteristics that make up a godly man. After about 5 weeks of this, these men decided they didn’t like my study because (and these are their words) “it wasn’t very practical with what they were currently dealing with.”

When we stand before God someday, we won’t be judged on Popular Mechanics list, but we will be judged based on the righteousness of Christ. What are you building into? John Piper recently called for a masculine Christianity. He defines it as:

The theology and the church and the mission are marked by over-arching male leadership and an ethos of tender-hearted strength and contrite courage and risk-taking decisiveness and readiness to sacrifice to protect and provide for the community—the feel of a great, majestic God making the men lovingly strong and the women intelligently secure.

Men of faith, let’s rise up and demonstrate true manhood as the Bible defines it.

The Westminster Bookstore in updated and online. They have a great section of CCEF resources as well as fairly competative prices on many other great items. Shipping is flat $5 for however much you order. Take time to browse over there.

I was recently helped and encouraged by a sermon of C.J. Mahaney’s entitled Hidden in Plain Sight from 2 Corinthians 13:14. This free audio of the sermon is available from C.J. Home Church, Covenant Life.

I thought this map charting the history of religion in the world was helpful and encouraging.

(HT: JT)

For today’s marriage monday segment, I thought I would return to the subject of love. Recently, Meg and I found out we are expecting (a child) again. These are really exciting days as we think about God’s blessing of children happening to us. I remember announcing this to the leadership and some of were quick to remind me about love.

In his book The Life of A God-Made Man, Dan Doriani writes a chapter on “The Three Faces of Love.” Our men recently studied this in SS. To summarize the content, Doriani believes “a healthy marriage will manifest 3 faces of love, labeled by the Greek words agape, philia, and eros. Agape is the selfless, sacrificial, Christlike love that touches stranger, neighbor, enemy, friend, child, and spouse alike. Philia is attraction for a special friend whom we admire due to shared interests or skills, due to their humor or intellect, or due to their personality or approach to life. Eros is romantic, sensual love, when fingertips and lips pulse at the thought of contact. Marriage thrives when these three forms of love join together. (p.69)”

I jokingly reminded the men who told me to love my wife, that eros got me in this position, philia would get me through the next 9 months, and I would definitely need agape come delivery day. Honestly, though, all these different loves need to pervade all of our marriages. As we seek to love our wives as Christ loved the church, we will pursue loving in a way that honors Him and serves our wives before ourselves. Men, remember to love your wife today!

I’ve listened to a lot of the messages from the 2007 Desiring God National Conference. The conference theme was Stand: A Call For The Endurance of The Saints. Since they are found on the Desiring God website, they are all available for free. Take advantage of some good teaching by men like Piper, MacArthur, Randy Alcorn, Jerry Bridges and others. This will be a good use of your time to persevere.

C.J. Mahaney first preached a sermon series on Humility (in two parts, This is the One To Whom I Will Look then the message True Greatness). After these sermons, which affected me deeply, I was pleased to see that the content was then released in book form under the title, Humility:True Greatness. If you are looking for additional ways to apply the message from yesterday, this might be a great place to continue the pursuit of humility.

Yesterday morning’s sermon encouraged us to be humble. I came across this helpful tool entitled The 50 Fruits of Pride, put out by Sovereign Grace Ministries that has been helpful in helping me see the nature of my pride.