Blog Vacation

I’m on a blog vacation this week. Hoping to make some progress on some DIY projects at our new home. See you again next Monday (July 24).


Why Read a Book on Sin?

Monstrous. Hideous. Mischievous. Odious. Pernicious. Poisonous. Vicious. Villainous. Heinous. Obnoxious. Venomous. Tedious. Treacherous. Impetuous. Ruinous. Murderous. Dangerous. Lascivious. Injurious. Infectious. Vexatious. Serious.

Bet you didn’t know so many words ended with “-ous” did you?

“So, what’s the point? Is this a blog or a thesaurus?”

OK, the point is that this is a sample – yes, just a sample – of words that the Puritan Ralph Venning used to describe “sin” in his book Sin, The Plague of Plagues. Although the Puritans didn’t win too many prizes for Book Title of the Year, they did speak to contemporary events, with this book being published shortly after The Great Plague of London that killed over 100,000 people.

“A book on sin? Why would anyone want to write that? And why would anyone want to read it?”

Anticipating such objections, Venning wrote in his introduction that “it cannot but be extremely useful to let men see what sin is: how prodigiously vile, how deadly mischievous, and therefore how monstrously ugly and odious a thing sin is. Thus a way may be made:

  • For admiring the free and rich grace of God.
  • For believing in our Lord Jesus Christ.
  • For vindicating the holy, just and good law of God, and his condemnation of sinners for breaking it.
  • For hating sin, and repenting for and from it, thereby taking a holy, just and good revenge on it and ourselves.
  • That we may love and serve God at a better rate than we ever did in the little and short time of innocence itself.
  • And, lastly, that this black spot may serve to set off the admirable, incomparable and transcendent beauty of holiness.

So, why not take some time to meditate on each of these ugly -ous words. And let them lead you to the beauty of three other -ous words: that God is gracious, that Christ’s blood is precious, and that we are righteous in Him.

Now that’s miraculous!


And if you’re looking for books on the subject here are Top 10 Puritan Books on Sin and Top 10 Modern Books on Sin.


Check out

Blogs

The First Year of Pastoring : Founders Ministries
“Every pastor has to experience the first year of pastoring to start laying groundwork for a lifetime of ministry. So what should a new pastor focus on during that year?”

5 Consequences Leaders Face for Not Resting
“Wise leaders don’t affirm people who brag about being workaholics or brag about never resting. Wise leaders know that a leader who fails to rest is a leader who fails to lead effectively. If you don’t rest, you won’t lead effectively. If you don’t lead your team to rest, they won’t lead as effectively as they can. Here are five consequences for not resting.”

Any Given Day with Ed Welch and Todd Stryd
“On any given day Ed Welch and Todd Stryd may be found counseling, teaching or writing. As you may imagine, they spend much time considering how Scripture impacts our lives. Here is a glimpse of what they have been thinking about recently.”

Learning to Love the Psalms, A New Teaching Series from W. Robert Godfrey
I’ve been listening to the audio book version of Learning to Love the Psalms and it’s meaty. Highly recommended

Are You in the Dangerous Time In Between?
I’m sure we all know people who need to read this article:

“I have been a Christian long enough to see more than my fair share of men fall. This I have observed: It’s so often the ones who seemed to be at their greatest moment of success who were on the precipice of destruction. Like blind men about to blunder off a cliff, they were oblivious to their impending doom. They failed to heed God’s warnings in that time in-between.”

Soul Care for Exhausted Young Mothers
Good mix of practical common sense advice and spiritual counsel in response to this question:

“”Dear Pastor John, my husband and I are new parents to a two-month-old son. Caring for him has been joyful and exhausting. I can barely concentrate on anything I used to but need the Lord more than ever to sustain me. What counsel do you give to new mothers on continuing their walk with God?”"

The Great Prize in Christian Dating
“Pursue Clarity and Postpone Intimacy”

One of My Biggest Ministry Mistakes
A short read but it could save you years of trouble.

I’ve made plenty of mistakes in my ministry, but avoiding conflict was one of the biggest. Nobody likes conflict, and if you do you have other issues we need to discuss. But when we avoid conflict, we hurt relationships and damage the church.

Kindle Books

Jesus on Every Page: 10 Simple Ways to Seek and Find Christ in the Old Testament $1.99.

Remember and Return: Rekindling Your Love for the Savior by John Macarthur $1.99.


The Dangers of Loneliness

We’re all aware of the epidemic of burnout, with close to 50% of people saying they are often or always exhausted at work. That’s twice as many as 20 years ago. But did you know of the connection between burnout and loneliness?

In Burnout at Work Isn’t Just About Exhaustion. It’s Also About Loneliness researchers demonstrate a significant correlation between feeling lonely and work exhaustion: The more people are exhausted, the lonelier they feel. “This loneliness,” they say, “is not a result of social isolation, as you might think, but rather is due to the emotional exhaustion of workplace burnout.”

And if you thought burnout was bad for you, loneliness is even worse.

  • Loneliness has a tremendous impact on psychological and physical health and longevity.
  • While obesity reduces longevity by 20%, drinking by 30%, and smoking by 50%, loneliness reduces it by a whopping 70%.
  • Loneliness increases your chance of stroke or coronary heart disease by 30%.
  • Loneliness costs employers billions of dollars each year and employee burnout costs hundreds of billions of dollars each year.

On the other hand, feelings of social connection can strengthen our immune systemlengthen our life, and lower rates of anxiety and depression.

What an opportunity for the church! Not only can we offer the grace of rest and peace but the grace of community and fellowship.


Check out

Blogs

How Many of the Ten Commandments Do Americans Think They’ve Broken This Month?
“How many of the ten commandments have you broken this month?” Find out what the most common response is.

Church Size: The Optimal Number?
150 apparently. Intriguing discussion.

Sloth Doesn’t Just Mean Sleep
“The sluggard is really the one who is doing something other than what ought to be done in that moment to the glory of God.”

10 Things You Should Know about Dementia
What a helpful book for ministering to a growing segment of the population.

5,000 Days
Tim Challies celebrates his 5000th consecutive day of blogging by taking us behind the curtain. Thank you, Tim, for your faithful service and the blessing you’ve been to me and so many Christians.

10 Practical Ways to Focus Your Mental Energy
“In a world of distraction and competing demands, mental focus is a scarce commodity. If you want more of it, you will have to be intentional about getting it. ”

Tempted To Worry? Call These 4 Words To Mind
And the four words? “There will be grace.”

Husband, Lift Up Your Eyes
This is a powerful plea. May God bless all Christian men with the same revulsion at the very thought of adultery.

Ever since I fell in love with Noël and I knew we would spend a lifetime being intimate, the very thought of touching another woman sexually became disgusting, sickening. This may sound weird. I have not talked about it with many people. But I have said to myself often, with amazement, “The thought of having sex with any other woman besides Noël feels as nauseating to me as the prospect of having sex with a man.”

The Confession of a Grace Abuser
“There have been times I’ve used my “grace card” like it was some kind of unlimited hall pass that allows me to go anywhere or do anything without fear of the consequences….So, let’s talk about grace abuse and why we do it.”

Kindle Books

It’s Amazon Prime Day today. Maybe time to get a Kindle device at reduced prices?

The Hole in Our Holiness: Filling the Gap between Gospel Passion and the Pursuit of Godliness by Kevin DeYoung $3.99.

Understanding the Times: A Survey of Competing Worldviews by Jeff Myers. A superb book of 500+ pages for only $2.39!

Taking God At His Word: Why the Bible Is Knowable, Necessary, and Enough, and What That Means for You and Me by Kevin DeYoung $3.99.


The Worrying Effects of Working More and Sleeping Less

A recent BBC article highlighted The Worrying Effects of Working More and Sleeping Less. Here are some stats which will either keep you awake tonight or perhaps send you to bed earlier:

  • Back in the 1940s people were sleeping on average just a little bit over eight hours a night, and now in the modern age, we’re down to around 6.7, 6.8 hours a night. That’s 20% less sleep in just 70 years.
  • The blue light emitted from our digital devices puts the brakes on the release of a hormone called melatonin at night, and melatonin signals when you should sleep.
  • Technology also causes sleep procrastination. Midnight is the time when we think, well, we should probably send our last email, let me just check Facebook one more time.
  • The primary cause of modern sleep deprivation is the economic and social pressure to work more, sleep less, and be more like some famous world leaders – including Donald Trump, Barack Obama, and Margaret Thatcher – who have claimed to exist on five hours of sleep a night or less.
  • 10,000 research study papers show that the number of people who can survive on six hours of sleep or less and show no impairment is zero.
  • Anything less than seven hours’ sleep, we start to see health consequences.
  • Matt Walker, professor of neuroscience and psychology at the University of California, Berkeley. “Every major disease that is killing us in the developed world: Alzheimer’s, cancer, obesity, diabetes, anxiety, depression, suicidality. All of them have direct now and very strong causal links to deficient sleep.”

Here are God’s stats: “It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows; for so He gives His beloved sleep” (Ps. 127:2).

And here are two ways to respond:

  • “I lay down and slept; I awoke, for the Lord sustained me” (Ps. 3:5).
  • “I will both lie down in peace, and sleep; For You alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety” (Ps. 4:8).