Burn Out or Rust Out?

I feel compelled to make the following comments. Most of what I say is to both my surprise and chagrin.

It seems that in trying to correct some possible pastoral abuses of the past, seminaries are exposing their students to a recurring theme: don't burn out... be sure to get your day(s) off... marriage first, ministry second." These refrains may all be quite true, but they come with such repetitive force that I fear that the pendulum has swung from those who jeopardized their families in the name of "ministry" to men who think that they have something coming to them because they are "in the ministry." We now have men who are so thoroughly warned of sacrificing their families that they sacrifice nothing!

I say this from my own experience. After my first six months of ministry I was shocked to discover that my biggest danger was not burn out but rusting out. I was lazy! I assumed that I was putting in my forty-plus hours of the ministry, being careful to guard my "time off." But, when I added up my hours I was short of forty. How could this be true of "hardworking Jonathan?"

Fortunately it is not now true of "hardworking Jonathan." His letter was a de facto testimony to his handling of the problem.

But his letter does point to a real, ongoing problem with many in the ministry. No one keeps track of a pastor's time. There are not clocks to punch or time cards to turn in. So if a man is not a self-starter, it is so easy to come in late and go home early. It is also very easy to let prayer and sermon preparation slip, and, generally, to imagine that extraneous interests are "ministry." There is more sloth in the pastoral ministry than we like to admit.

--- Kent and Barbara Hughes, Liberating Ministry from the Success Syndrome, pp. 41-42

How to Have Revival

To publish the doctrine of a reconciled God, to tell men that the Lord has laid help upon Jesus by punishing him instead of us; to proclaim that there is life in a look at the Crucified One, to tell them that the Holy Ghost creates men new creatures in Christ Jesus, to give a full and comprehensive view of the doctrines of grace; this is one of the surest ways, under God, of promoting a revival of religion.

--- C.H. Spurgeon in Sermon #725 "A Message from God to His Church and People"

Hell is a Humorless Place

For humour involves a sense of proportion and a power of seeing yourself from the outside. Whatever else we attribute to beings who sinned through pride, we must not attribute this. Satan, said Chesterton, fell through force of gravity. We must picture Hell as a state where everyone is perpetually concerned about his own dignity and advancement, where everyone has a grievance, and where everyone lives the deadly serious passions of envy, self-importance, and resentment.

--- C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters, in his "Preface to the 1961 Edition

God Knows, God Cares, God Acts

Omniscience is not ignorant; God knows. Love is not indifferent; He cares. Omnipotence is not powerless; He acts.

--- H. C. Thiessen, Lectures in Systematic Theology, p. 88

It's Not Just My Interpretation

Some of us compartmentalize our lives. We imagine that obedience to God's Word in one area means we have obeyed in other areas. Others of us rationalize. For example, one common rationalization is the "many-interpretation" theory - that Scripture is subject to so many interpretations we cannot really know what it means. This is especially convenient when we do not like what it says! But, the fact is God's Word is generally clear. Usually, it's painfully clear. As Mark Twain once said, "It's not what I don't understand about the Bible that bothers me; it's what I do understand!"

Success, then, comes when we faithfully study God's Word and faithfully obey it, applying what we understand to all areas of our lives under the direction of the Holy Spirit. A growing knowledge of the Bible matched by a growing obedience is the path to faithfulness and success.

--- Kent and Barbara Hughes in Liberating Ministry from the Success Syndrome, p. 40

A Passage for the Sword of the Lord

I have heard what the prophets said, that prophesy lies in my name, saying, I have dreamed, I have dreamed. How long shall this be in the heart of the prophets that prophesy lies? yea, they are prophets of the deceit of their own heart; Which think to cause my people to forget my name by their dreams which they tell every man to his neighbour, as their fathers have forgotten my name for Baal. The prophet that hath a dream, let him tell a dream; and he that hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat? saith the LORD. Is not my word like as a fire? saith the LORD; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces? Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets, saith the LORD, that steal my words every one from his neighbour. Behold, I am against the prophets, saith the LORD, that use their tongues, and say, He saith. Behold, I am against them that prophesy false dreams, saith the LORD, and do tell them, and cause my people to err by their lies, and by their lightness; yet I sent them not, nor commanded them: therefore they shall not profit this people at all, saith the LORD.

Lessons of Revival

What is taught to us by a revival? I think it is just this, - that God is absolute monarch of the hearts of men.

--- C. H. Spurgeon, Sermon #296 "A Revival"

(he goes on to say, "Divine Omnipotence is the doctrine of a revival. We may not see it in ordinary days, by reason of the coldness of our hearts; but we must see it when these extraordinary works of grace are wrought."

- and then -

"So, brethren, when we see the church gradually built up and converted, we lose the sense perhaps of a present God; but when the Lord causes the tree suddenly to grow from a sapling to a strong tall monarch of the forest, then we say, 'This is God.'")

Stupid Questions

If there are no stupid questions, then what kind of questions do stupid people ask? Do they get smart just in time to ask questions?

--- Scott Adams