Why You Need to Stop Using Public Wi-Fi

According to a recent poll, more people are leery of public Wi-Fi networks than of public toilet seats. But that doesn’t stop 70% of people connecting to them when available. In Why You Really Need to Stop Using Public Wi-fi, global security expert Luke Bencie compares the dangers of using public Wi-Fi to the risks of having unprotected sex.

 In both cases, not taking the necessary precautions can lead to lasting harm. For mobile devices, the harm is digital: the theft of your personal data, such as passwords, financial information, or private pictures or videos. You’re rolling the dice every time you log on to a free network in a coffee shop, hotel lobby, or airport lounge.

And it’s not just large corporations that are at risk. “Over half of the adults in the U.S. have their personal information exposed to hackers each year.” Bencie offers seven security tips to keep prying eyes out of your devices.

And while you’re at it, be super-careful when using Google Docs this week if you don’t want to fall victim to a sophisticated scam.

Digital Minimalism

We all know we should be using our devices less, but few of us can take the ultimate step of reverting to a dumbphone. Joshua Millburn, cofounder of The Minimalists, thinks he’s found a compromise solution. He leaves his phone in airplane mode and only checks in at set times. By doing so, he can screen out needless distractions and yet still get the best out of his device. “Digital minimalism is about being more deliberate with the tools that we have,” he explains.

The most-listened to Minimalist podcast was one dealing with reducing tech dependency without cutting oneself off from the digital dopamine machine altogether. Everyone recognizes the problem but fewer are taking any action to solve it:

According to the American Psychological Association (APA), 65% of Americans agree that periodically “unplugging” or taking a “digital detox” is important for their mental health. But only 28% of them report actually doing so. A recent Nielsen study found that in 2016, the average American spent 10 hours and 39 minutes a day consuming media on screens. That’s one hour more than in 2015. And a survey for the APA revealed that Americans who constantly checked their phones reported the highest levels of stress. “What these individuals don’t consider is that while technology helps them in many ways, being constantly connected can have a negative impact on both their physical and mental health,” APA associate executive director Lynn Bufka said.

Cal Newport, author of Deep Work, believes phones and their algorithms are engineered to be addictive and to engender FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out). He’d like to see people consider the risks of FOBO (Fear Of Burning Out).

On the same topic, Learning to Power Off is a personal reflection on Andy Crouch’s Book, The Tech-Wise Family. One of Crouch’s insights is the need for a “Silicon Sabbath.”

We are designed for a rhythm of work and rest. So one hour a day, one day a week, and one week a year, we turn off our devices and worship, feast, play, and rest together.

Which brings us to…

Remember The Sabbath

One of the main reasons for the epidemic of burnout is the absence of a weekly Sabbath in most people’s lives. As Mike Ayers puts it:

The principle of the Sabbath is God’s ingenious command to help us draw boundaries around labor and live a healthy emotional and spiritual existence. The Sabbath means that once every week, for twenty-four hours we drop everything—every concern and every thought of every concern. When practiced properly, Sabbath allows the mind, body, and spirit to be restored and replenished.

God Will Hold You Through Your Habits

David Mathis argues that “your habits are one of the most important things about you” and suggests “four lessons that might help you get intentional, and become more effective, in cultivating life-giving habits for the Christian life.” They are:

1. Habits Free our Focus
2. Habits Protect What’s Most Important
3. Habits Are Not One-Size-Fits-All
4. Habits Are Driven By Desire

10 Things You Should Never Do in a Theological Research Paper

This is short and you have to give up your email to get the free download, but it’s worth it.

Father to the Fatherless

If you’re interested in ministering to the multitudes whose idea of fatherhood had been warped by their terrible experiences of their own fathers abuse of simply walking away, you want to read Jonathan Edwards’ article. Try this tear-jerker for a sample:

But what if our thoughts about our Father are entangled with and stained by the abuse and abandonment of our earthly father? Anyone who has experienced the acute pain of dad walking out knows it can be all-consuming. I have, and I know. Dad driving away shattered the one thing I believed to be indestructible, superhuman even: my family. But family turned out to be more fluid than I once thought . . . and hoped. Like a permanent smudge on the lens through which we see the world, the dissolution of the family distorts all that we know and all that we are. Our hearts beat out of rhythm. Our thoughts weigh heavier on our minds. Our tears flow faster. The voice that once calmed us in the middle of the night is suddenly silent. The picture frame that preserved our family on the wall is either gone or empty.

You may also want to consider his book, Left, The Struggle to Make Sense of Life When a Parent Leaves.

Kindle Books

Love Walked among Us: Learning to Love Like Jesus by Paul Miller $2.99.

Running Scared: Fear, Worry, and the God of Rest by Ed Welch $1.59.

Is God Anti-Gay? by Sam Allberry $5.63.

I’ll be speaking at a conference in Kinnelon, New Jersey, on 19-20 May. If you’re in the area, why not come and join us as we consider:

Christian Emotions: A positive look at the place of emotion and feelings in the Christian life

The Sad Christian: What causes depression and how a Christian can recover from it

The Happy Christian: The ingredients that make a joyful Christian life even in a gloomy culture

More details here.

Did you know God made endorphins to help us feel his joy? In Do You Exercise for the Wrong Reasons? David Mathis explains how the chemicals released during physical exercise are a gift from God to lead us to himself.

A New York Times/Harvard Business Review survey found that employees are more satisfied and productive when four of their core needs are met:

• Physical needs, met through opportunities to regularly renew and recharge at work
• Emotional needs, fulfilled by feeling valued and appreciated for their contributions
• Mental needs, satisfied when people feel they have the opportunity to focus on their most important tasks, and define when—and where—they get their work done
• Spiritual needs, met by feeling connected to a higher purpose at work

Sabbath rest essential

In Work is not your life: Why Sabbath rest is essential, Hugh Whelchel argues that Christianity satisfies four of these needs by giving us the following tools:

• In the physical area, God has given us the Sabbath
• In the emotional area, God has given us work
• In the mental area, God has given us the resurrection
• In the spiritual area, God has given us calling

His article focuses on the Sabbath ”and how faithful observation of it can deliver us from feeling stressed, exhausted, and running on empty.” I love his Keller quote:

The purpose of Sabbath is not simply to rejuvenate yourself in order to do more production, nor is it the pursuit of pleasure. The purpose of Sabbath is to enjoy your God, life in general, what you have accomplished in the world through his help, and the freedom you have in the gospel—the freedom from slavery to any material object or human expectation. The Sabbath is a sign of the hope that we have in the world to come.

The Work-Life Balance Myth

I don’t agree with Shawn’s skepticism about achieving work-life balance. However,  at the end of the article he provides some practical tips on how to “do Sabbath”:

• Take your day off. Simple. Do you trust God enough to do life according to His pattern? The answer is either YES or NO.
• Do all your “honey-do” lists, and house-catch-up tasks on Saturdays. Go ahead and work hard around the house of you need to. The Biblical idea is just to have ONE DAY that we stop EVERYTHING.
• Honor the LORD on the Sabbath. Go to church. Worship Him. Serve Him. Give to Him. God knows what’s best for us. God refreshes us through His people, His worship, and His Word. Be faithful to church! Stop making excuses!
• Take your vacation time. All of it. Don’t feel guilty about it. Don’t answer your cell phone. That’s what voicemail is for. Set up your voicemail to say: “I’m on vacation. I need the rest from work, so I will only be returning phone calls this week that have the word ‘emergency’ in them.”
• Tell your kids they can do 1-2 seasonal sports. That’s it. Train them to rest. Train them to do 1-2 things, rather than allowing them to try to do everything!
• Have some YOU and GOD time. Find the quietest part of your day EVERY DAY and BE STILL AND KNOW THAT HE IS GOD. Take some time to read God’s Word and pray! No, you won’t get quite as much done if you stop for 30 minutes and do nothing. But, you’ll be reminded again that YOU DON’T HAVE TO GET EVERYTHING DONE!

Man Gives Diet Advice

We don’t often hear men giving diet advice, and especially not Christian men. Well, Clint Archer defies the stereotypes as he narrates 4 Lessons from my First 100 Days of Healthy Eating. He “decided, under the guidance of my doctor, to cut out all sugar, gluten, processed foods, and all animal products—meat, fish, dairy, eggs— from my diet for three weeks. All I ate was plants, all I drank was plants (i.e. smoothies, not beer!).” I know, it sounds ghastly, but note his verdict:

After three weeks my energy levels were revitalized, my mental focus was sharper, my sleep seemed more reinvigorating, my waistline was gratifyingly diminished, and the nine marks of an unhealthy Clint were noticeably dissipating. So, I extended the experiment to 100 days.

One of the lessons he learned was “health and wellness, including longevity, are more dramatically affected by diet and lifestyle than I had realized.”

5 Ways to Maximize Your Downtime
See #1: RE-THINK YOUR NEED FOR NEWS

Watching (or reading) the news all day is a non-essential time trap. It maybe informative in moderation but is rarely transformative for the churches & communities you have influence over. Ministry is about life change and living our lives to their fullest potential so why do we obsess with more news rather than more living? Sure, news can be a learning mechanism (i.e. learning about culture, current events and policy so that you can be an informed member of society) but unless you have plans to break down the countless complex issues in the news and act on those complexities systematically, you’re left with nothing more than a loosely defined and often biased opinion of each issue. Very valuable (not)!

6 Simple Ways to Avoid Burnout

A neat infographic that reminds us of the basics and provides some stunning (and motivating facts).

More Grace-Paced Living Resources here.

After reading my posts last week on repairing the damage after a pastor falls (Part 1, Part 2), Tom Parr, pastor at Cornerstone Baptist Church, sent me the following article on the reasons why pastoral falls are becoming so common.

I have been a Reformed Baptist pastor for 10 years, and I have not fallen, nor am I aware of any problems in my life of the magnitude that would disqualify me from ministry. I struggle with worry and grumbling, but my sins aren’t of the notorious and ignominious sort. I hasten to add however that I am no less in need of God’s grace and forgiveness than someone who is disgraced in the eyes of the self-righteous crowd or disqualified in the eyes of the humble Christian crowd. We are all sinners, and we all desperately need continual supplies of God’s grace, which he has given us in Christ and through the Holy Spirit.

Every sin deserves God’s wrath, but some sins receive different temporal ramifications than others. God has stipulated that those he has set over his flock must not be sinners of the blatant, notorious type (1 Tim. 3). Unfortunately, I am aware of several pastors who have become just that. In fact some of the most notorious sinners I’ve ever known were at one time pastors. These men were disqualified for ministry, and they faded away in shame, leaving in their wake many hurting, confused and outraged people. My question is a simple one. Why? Why does this happen? Why can we all, no doubt, bring to mind several names and faces of pastors who lost their testimony and their ministry due to notorious sin?

I believe there are a multitude of reasons why pastors fall. Let me address only a few before focusing on one in particular.

Sexual Sin
First, there are many men who enter the ministry who have never conquered sexual sin in their personal lives. A man who has no self-control is fighting the Holy Spirit whose fruit always produces it. There can be no doubt: a person is a slave to whomever he obeys. People who habitually commit sexual sin are slaves to the devil and to the flesh. Such men enter the ministry already fallen; their later “fall” is just an exposure of what they are.

No Devotional Life
Second, there are many men in the ministry who have never established regular devotional times. Such a person is fundamentally at odds with God, because God invites all Christians to meditate in God’s Law day and night. Many men have no interest in prayer. Such men are vulnerable to attacks from the enemy, and when temptation comes over and over, they cannot stand because their lifeline is cut, they have no spiritual power, for they simply don’t love God enough to maintain a relationship with him.

Wrong Motivations
Third, many pastors get into ministry for the wrong reasons, so their motivations are either false or they are mixed. Some people become pastors because they think they’ll get peace, or money, or respect, or time, or power. They are in it primarily for supposed benefits. It is hard not to think of such men as completely ignorant of what pastoral life is really like. When ministry turns out to be full of disillusionments, they turn to what gives them pleasure, because that was what they were seeking to begin with.

These and many reasons can be trotted out, but I would like to focus on one in particular. Often pastors fail because they and their families are victims of a lack of covenant solidarity, which subtly turns them from God.

Lack of Covenant Solidarity
What do I mean by covenant solidarity? I’d define it as a principle of unity among a congregation that isn’t derived from shared personality traits, mutual hobbies, or common interests, but rather is derived from a shared interest in and love for Christ. Covenant solidarity is “the tie that binds.” This Christ-centered form of relationship results in an undying devotion to those for whom he died. It is the lack of this covenant solidarity that is so damaging, not only to pastors but to all in the congregation.

What damage occurs when there is a loss of covenant solidarity? Or what if a church was founded originally on some other uniting principle rather than covenant solidarity? There are many dire results.

Cliques are born
First, people gravitate to those of their own stripe and therefore cliques are born. Instead of being interested in all people who are in Christ, people who don’t love Christ first and foremost find some other uniting principle, which typically involves shared interests. It’s striking how petty friendships become when Christ is left out. People unite around baking, motorcycles, hunting, music, and games. People naturally seek to flock with other birds like them, and without a cause bigger than themselves, they simply follow their personal inclinations.

Schismatics are born
Second, People make their own happiness the primary reason to be in a church, and so schismatics are born: those who will dump a church because it didn’t “scratch their back” well enough. People in churches like this are insecure, especially the pastors. They instinctively feel that they have to perform or “be what others want them to be,” and therefore they fear rejection and are dominated by the whims and opinions of others.

Idolatry is born
Third, when something other than Jesus Christ becomes the uniting principle in the local church, the church becomes fundamentally idolatrous. To put it simply, people are coming to church for other reasons than out of love for God. I tell my kids “you aren’t coming to church to see and be seen. You are coming to church to sing to God, pray to God, give to God, and hear from God so that you can love God, worship God and obey God. Church is all about relating to God.” When an entire church gets this, really gets it, a wonderful sort of harmony and tranquility enters, and the chaotic bustle and attempts at being the Great Personality fade away as everyone realizes there is only one answer, Jesus Christ, and they become content eagerly seeking him. The pastor then can function in his proper role. He can stop being a celebrity and start laboring at the task of feeding Christ’s dear sheep with Christ’s holy Word.

Fourth, another result is that the pastor takes the brunt of the idolatry. He is the most public person in the congregation, and people tend to expect more from him. Often the pastor goes along with this state of affairs and is unaware that it is occurring, even as he wonders why he feels that he is drying up, struggling with fear, and can’t take comfort from God’s Word anymore. Try being the Great Personality around which the church must be unified, and you’ll see how soul destroying it is. When a pastor “goes off the deep end” it is often because the whole group had already been swimming in it for some time.

Hatred is born
Fifth, another result is the hatred that springs up in idolaters’ hearts when their idol fails to live up to their expectations. This is inevitable when the congregation has a principle of unity other than Christ. The numbers of people who have inexplicably turned on pastors because they didn’t show up to a sporting event, or because they didn’t let them teach Sunday school, or because they didn’t check up on them enough, or because they “seemed uninterested” in them, or because they didn’t go along with a peculiar vision for the church . . . The numbers of such people are surprising, though thankfully not overwhelming. Of course there are other reasons why people become angry at pastors, but in this sense they do so because they have an idolatrous expectation bound up in human religious leadership, and I assume that they are unaware of their tragic spiritual state. They think they are following Jesus, but they need to put God in his proper place in their lives. They need to repent of their idolatry.

The burden that this sort of thing places on pastors is enormous, even when they recognize that it is happening and when they consistently, day-by-day deal with it correctly. The burden on their families is also enormous. And when it becomes too great to bear, the family unit ruptures, invisibly at first, but as relationships grow cold, the pastor has lost his God-given place of refuge in the world. If there is any weakness in his relationship with God, he’s bound to have all his personal weaknesses exploited by the enemy.

I believe that one reason pastors fall is a lack of covenant solidarity in the group. People aren’t united around Christ as the tie that binds.

“I am not Christ”
I once was in a class on the prophet Isaiah, which I took during my seminary years. The teacher was a very kind man, who was somewhat discombobulated all the time and yet still had something insightful to say every class period. I appreciated him, and apparently other people in class did too, to the level of idolizing him.

One day he came to class looking positively oppressed, and after opening the class with prayer, he said something I’ll never forget. He looked at the class, commiserated with some people about their difficult situations, and then he said “I am not Christ.” His point was an obvious one. Nobody thought he was Jesus, and at first I wondered what he was getting at. Nevertheless, it became apparent that he needed to say it. There were people in class who were putting him on a pedestal.

People expect far too much out of friends, teachers, and preachers. People expect things that only Jesus can provide: unfailing love, acceptance, security, total relational satisfaction, a heart large enough to feel all their woes. One of the signs of a godly pastor is that he doesn’t take too much on himself. The godly pastor knows who the true answer is, and he doesn’t try to be Him. When faced with the woes of a sin-cursed world, the godly pastor’s response is always “I care about you; I will pray for you; I’ll try to help you in whatever small way I can, but your answer is Jesus Christ as offered to you in the Bible. Go to him through Bible reading, prayer, good sermons, and the ordinances. He rewards those who seek him and will truly meet your every need.” Such an attitude not only points to the true help everyone needs, but it also avoids the trap of unbiblical idolatrous expectations that can literally drive pastors out of their minds and out of their pulpits.

This post cannot hope to give all the reasons why pastors fall, but one reason is no doubt that many pastors are suffering from an idolatrous culture, in which they themselves may be complicit, and which makes something other than Jesus the tie that binds.

Blogs

7 Ways to Fight Distraction in Prayer | Gavin Ortlund, TGC
“Distraction can be a huge hindrance in our prayer life, but I’m also discovering it provides an opportunity for growth. Here are seven strategies for fighting and harnessing distraction to deepen and direct our prayers.”

Ten Reasons It Is More Difficult to Be a Pastor Today | Thom Rainer
“…it is indeed more difficult to be a pastor today than earlier years. At least ten major issues led to these challenges.”

Advance! Priorities for Young Christians | Tim Challies
“Over the course of a number of articles I’m titling ‘Advance!’ I want to consider what Jesus accomplished in these years of silence, and I want to show how they were crucial to who he would become and what he would accomplish. From the life of Jesus, I want to encourage young Christians to make the most of their teens and 20s by advancing first in accomplishments of character. Many young Christians have a noble desire to change the world and to do great things, but in most cases God intends to first change them and to do great things in their hearts and minds.”

Advice to Young Adults Living at Home | Barry York, Gentle Reformation
“I would like to offer some advice to young adults living at home, be they students returning for the summer, graduates who have come back to the nest for a while, or those in their twenties who have never left. Having my own adult children under roof at various times and hosting their friends in the same situation, I have observed a thing or two about this phenomenon. ”

Do You Exercise for the Wrong Reasons? | David Mathis, Desiring God
“Precisely because ‘we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them’ (Ephesians 2:10), we want to cultivate our bodies so that they are a help, rather than a hindrance, in the cause of love.”

10 Tips to Make Your Presentations More Productive | Time Management Ninja
“Crafting an effective presentation is hard work. And it takes time, effort, and practice. It is definitely a learned skill. While I cannot instantly make you a top presenter, I can provide you with some of the basic do’s and don’ts that will make your presentations better.”

Kindle Deals

For your non-Kindle book buying needs please consider using Reformation Heritage Books in the USA and Reformed Book Services in Canada. Good value prices and shipping.

Has Christianity Failed You? by Ravi Zacharias ($2.99)

Romans (The Story of God Bible Commentary) by Michael F. Bird ($8.99)

Faithful Women and Their Extraordinary God by Noël Piper ($2.99)

American Commander: Serving a Country Worth Fighting For and Training the Brave Soldiers Who Lead the Way by Ryan Zinke ($2.99)

Video

What Should Every Christian Know About Biblical Theology?

I’ve been taking our adult Sunday School through Tim Keller’s book, The Meaning of Marriage. We’ve been camped out in chapter five for a few weeks, and yesterday we looked at Keller’s teaching on “Love Currencies” or “Love Languages.” His basic point was we must give the love-currency to our spouse that they value most and speak the love-language that best communicates love to them.

He then has a practical section on the three main currencies or languages – Affection, Friendship, Service – which I’ve arranged into a checklist. Keller recommends that husbands and wives regularly review a list such as this to identify the best way to give love to one another and then “concretely give love to each other in deliberate ways every week.”

AFFECTION

• Eye contact
• Caresses
• Sitting closely together
• Holding hands
• Finding situations that make focused attention easier
  • Walks
  • Sitting before fireplaces
  • Scenic drives
  • Picnics
• Personal appearance
• Playfulness/fun
• Verbal expressions of love (direct, personal, specific, ever-fresh ways)
• Honest praise, appreciation, thankfulness (refraining from harsh critical words)
• Written expressions of love (notes, cards, letters, reflections on special occasions)
• Gifts (thoughtful, personal, useful, beautiful)

FRIENDSHIP

• Doing something that at least one of you loves doing and that enables you to communicate while doing it
  • Recreation
  • Entertainment
  • Gardening
  • Chores
• Show that time with your spouse has priority in your life
• Take interest and pride in your spouse’s work at home and outside the home
• Share each other’s mental world
  • Reading books together
  • Discussing changes in your thinking
  • Studying a book together
• Listening and opening up to each other
  • Sharing fears, hurts, weaknesses
• Follow through on commitments and be reliable

SERVICE

• Serving each other begins with the most practical and menial of tasks
• Showing him/her great respect
• Give your spouse the confidence that you will speak up and stand up for him/her
• Show you are committed to his/her well-being and flourishing
• Help your spouse to develop gifts and pursue aspirations for growth
• One of the greatest expressions of love is the willingness to change
  • Make a commitment to change attitudes and behaviors in yourself that trouble/hurt your spouse
  • Ability to take correction and be accountable for real concrete changes
• Help each other to grow spiritually
  • Encourage each other to participate together actively in church
  • Reading and digesting Christian books together
  • Studying the Bible together
  • Daily joint prayer
• Allowing your spouse privacy

Regarding prayer he says:

“Praying daily with and for each other is a love language that in many ways brings the other love languages together. It means being tenderly affectionate and transparent with each other…If you do that every day, or most days, it seasons your entire relationship with the love of God and of one another.”