Poetry

Things Artificial Intelligence Can’t Do

This poem by Aaron Belz was described by Steven Searcy (himself a wonderful poet!) as “devastating.” That is certainly an apt description.

Smoke From the Altar

This collection from Louis L’Amour was his first published book. As someone who grew up reading his novels (and still enjoys them, along with his short stories, from time to time), I wasn’t sure what to expect. But I enjoyed this far more than many more celebrated poets I’ve read (here’s glaring at you, Robert Frost and WH Auden).

They Sit Together on the Porch

I’ve not read any of Wendell Berry’s full works, but encountering several of his poems on here since his death has made me think I need to start into that poetry collection on my shelf. This particular poem is very much what I imagine life to be like in 40-50 years.

Theology

Theological Method: An Introduction

This slim volume by Graham Cole (previously published as Faithful Theology) is a great introduction to the how and why of Christian theology.

The Trinity: An Introduction

Another slim volume in the Crossway Short Studies series, I just started into this book, but the first several chapters have been quite rich. Reading as part of the Systematic Theology reading group with the Alexandrian Institute.

Romans (Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament)

This volume in the ZECNT series has been marvelously helpful as I’ve been working through Romans in study, and now starting to preach through. I’m through chapter 9 of Romans in the commentary, and even where I disagree with Thielman’s conclusions I find his discussion of the issues to be thorough and clear, which is ultimately what I want from an exegetical commentary.

Mother Kirk: Essays on Church Life

I’m listening to this book by Douglas Wilson—it is classic Wilson in terms of clear argumentation, sharp wit, and a pastoral attentiveness that is often missing in ecclesiological discussions.

Fiction

Pride and Prejudice

We recently finished this book as a family. Outside of the wonderful performance by my favorite voice actor (Andie), this book is so funny it’s not even funny. If you think Regency literature is too high brow for you, or if you’re just too “manly” to read a love story, let me assure you: though the plot is certainly centered around relationships, this book has a lot more to do with human folly, the fallibility of our character judgements, and the costs of indiscretion. And, let me repeat: Austen’s wit is sharp, biting, and hilarious.

Boys of Blur

N.D. Wilson’s re-telling of the Beowulf story, set in modern Florida, is fast, gripping, and a little edge-of-your-seat-y. I listened to Joffre Swait narrate it on Canon+ a while back, and now Andie is reading it to our family. Great quotes abound.

Podcasts

Not Dead Yet

Hosted by Ben Sasse and Chris Stirewalt. All the episodes of this podcast have been worth listening to. I have always had a deep admiration for Ben Sasse, and I will link a couple of interviews with him below. But listening to him process the meaning of the good life with widely varied guests has been a Masterclass on both living and dying well. The above linked episode was catnip for myself and my boys, as it focused heavily on history.

Thinking in Public

Hosted by Albert Mohler. I always enjoy these conversations, Mohler sometimes talk more than I appreciate in a “host”, but the subject matter makes it worth dealing with that minor annoyance. The above linked conversation about John Broadus was a fascinating bit of history.

Interesting Times

Hosted by Ross Douthat. This podcast is actually going the way of the dinosaur, as Douthat is leaving the New York Times for CBS. But I found most of his conversations here to be absolutely fantastic. The above linked is actually an episode of The Ezra Klein Show, in which Klein does an “exit interview” with Douthat. For Douthat as a host, see the first Sasse interview below.

This is part of a series of communion meditations considering the Lord’s Prayer

We’re meditating through the Lord’s Prayer, and we now come to Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. What is the Lord’s will? How is the Lord’s will done in heaven?

Let’s start with the first question. Classically, Christian theologians have spoken of God’s will, the Lord’s will, in two main senses. First, His will of decree, or His secret will. It’s in this sense that the 17th Century English theologians at the Westminster Assembly spoke of God’s foreordaining whatsoever comes to pass. In this sense, anything and everything that happens is according God’s will. Nothing happens outside his will because he is Almighty. He’s in control of everything. As it says in Daniel chapter 4 verse 35, there is none who can stay his hand. None who can say to him, what have you done? God is in control of everything. Nothing happens apart from the will of the Father. That’s what Jesus says in the Gospels. There’s no higher authority for God to answer to.

But generally when normal people, who aren’t 17th century theologians, speak of God’s will, we speak of it in a second sense: namely, his will of precept. That is, what does God want us to do? An older brother might ask: is it God’s will for me to kick my brother. Probably not. That’d probably be a failure to love my neighbor as myself. You might say that’s obvious and common sense, but how do I know God wants me to love my neighbor as myself? Through what he tells us. And we find that written down in The Book.

So when Jesus teaches us to pray, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven, especially right on the heels of having prayed, thy kingdom come, I think the point he’s driving at is clear: He’s praying for God’s word to be obeyed by human beings on this earth as joyfully and immediately as the angels in heaven obey his will moment by moment. Where does such obedient living start? It starts when we listen to his word, repent of where we have disobeyed, and ask for his hep to follow what he has told us.

In following Jesus’ model of prayer, we are praying, in essence, Lord, help me to be joyfully obedient to you. Help us, as your church, to walk in conformity to your ways.

It’s in living a life devoted to this form of thy will be done that we’re able to embrace the other form of thy will be done. The way Jesus uses those same words in the Garden of Gethsemane. Maybe you remember the story.

The night on which he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus looked at the bitter cup—in the Garden of Gethsemene he looked at the awful price of the cross—knowing he was about to bear our sins and God’s wrath against those sins in order to bring us salvation. And he prayed, Father, if it is possible, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will. In pursuing a life lived in obedience to the revealed will of the Father as laid down in Scripture, the Lord Jesus came to his greatest hour of testing and was able to lay aside his human desire to be spared that bitter cup, and he drank it in obedience to the Divine will.

We can pray Thy will be done because Jesus prayed it first. We can pursue obedience to Him because He first was obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. So if you know the Lord Jesus as your Savior, this table is for you. If you know him, join us in celebrating his perfect obedience to the Father’s will. Bearing our sins in his body on the tree that we might die to disobedience and live to the Father’s will. It’s in Jesus’ broken body and shed blood that we are healed.

This is part of a series of communion meditations through the Lord’s Prayer

The first recorded words of Jesus in the Gospel of Mark are this: The time is fulfilled. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe the gospel. (Mark 1:15)

As we work our way through the Lord’s Prayer, we come now to the second petition: Thy kingdom come.

The kingdom of God is one of the greatest themes in the Bible. And at the same time, it’s one of the most hotly contested parts of Christian theology. What exactly does the kingdom entail? What does its scope? When does it actually come? These are all debated by Christian theologians.

In very simple terms, a kingdom involves three things. It involves a king or a ruler. It involves a people over whom the ruler reigns. And it involves a realm, a place where that rule is exercised. King, people, and realm. That’s what a kingdom is.

There is a sense in which everything everywhere is always under the rule of God, and as God, he is in authority over it—everyone being, in fact, under his authority. Thus all of creation could be called, in some sense, the kingdom of God. And that’s how it was meant to be at creation. Everything was under his rule, gladly, willingly, in submission to his rule.

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This is the second in a series of communion meditations on the Lord’s Prayer

We began our consideration of the Lord’s Prayer with it’s opening words, “our Father who art in heaven”, and considered the wonder that the almighty God of the universe would be identified as the Father of sinners like you and me. This, of course, is why Jesus came.

Now we come to Jesus’ first petition in the prayer. Hallowed be thy name. What does it mean for the name of God to be hallowed? Hallowed isn’t exactly a word we use every day in the year 2026. It does still hold a place in our vocabulary, almost always in reference to a place. We might think of the Gettysburg battlefield as hallowed ground, or you might walk into a beautiful cathedral and think this place is hallowed ground, a hallowed place.

Read more

This is the first in a series of communion meditations considering the Lord’s Prayer.

Today, we are beginning a consideration of the Lord’s Prayer. And the first thing to notice about the Lord’s Prayer is that in common Christian speech, it goes by two different names: The Lord’s Prayer, and the Our Father. Both names make sense and are simple to explain. It is called The Lord’s Prayer, because it is the prayer that our Lord Jesus taught to his disciples. Pray then in this way, he said to them. It is called the Our Father because those are the first two words of the prayer. And like many songs take their names from the opening lines, so too, this prayer has been known by Christians by its opening words throughout history. Both names make sense and are perfectly acceptable, and I intentionally use them both.

But as we consider this prayer, I think it’s important to start with those first two words, and the four that follow it: Our Father, who art in heaven.

There are three documents make up the core “discipleship curriculum” of the historic Christian church: the 10 Commandments, The Lord’s Prayer, and the Apostles’ Creed. It’s instructive that each of those three documents begin with the identity of God. In Exodus 20:2 God says, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.” God wanted his people to know that he was the one who had delivered them, who had redeemed them, who was their Savior. But while that identity does not change—he is still the only Savior, and besides him there is no God (Isaiah 43:11)—nonetheless, when we confess the Creed or approach him in prayer as Jesus taught, the named relationship is different: we believe in God the Father almighty. We pray to Our Father in heaven. This was an important shift that Jesus introduced.

In Old Testament times, God had revealed himself as the Father of Israel as a nation. To the extent that any individual might see God directly as a father, the king might do so, especially in his role as representative head over the whole nation.

But when Jesus, who by his sacrificial death in our place became the New Adam, the Head of a new Humanity, he brought every single believer into a newly intimate relationship with God. We now, this side of the cross and the empty tomb, and this side of the Spirit’s outpouring at Pentecost, do not simply relate to God as the Almighty God in Heaven. He still, most emphatically, is Almighty God in Heaven. But he now welcomes us into his presence as his children. He is our Father in heaven. We come as welcome children, those who have been given all the rights of sons and daughters. We come to him in prayer not as strangers or foreigners, not as those unfamiliar with him, but those who know that he has set his name upon us. We know the Father (1 John 2:12-13), and therefore we come to him with our every need.

We can have such confidence because he sent his Son to save us. The Lord Jesus, in coming to earth to purchase us by his blood, was doing the will of the Father; bringing many sons and daughters to glory. And so we pray now, enabled by the Holy Spirit, coming on the basis of the broken body and shed blood our our Savior and older brother, Jesus, into the throne room of the Father—expectant that he will do us good.

I. What

What is the Bible? The Bible, in short, is the very Word of the Living God.

When I refer to the Bible, I am referring to the 66 books which include the Old and New Testaments. Included in this “canon”1 are the 39 books of the Old Testament that make up the Hebrew Bible, and the 27 books of the New Testament.2

You’ll read a lot on the internet these days about the church “making” the Bible and suppressing these ideas that contradicted what the “powerful” people wanted everyone to believe. This is simple hogwash. The truth is far more simple, and less sensational. The church did not “pick and choose” which books to include in the Bible, but rather came to recognize those books which had the marks of true Divine Authorship, and in the course of time the church came to a clear consensus.3

The Scriptures themselves testify to their own Divine Origin and Authority: “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable” (2 Timothy 3:16), “no prophecy ever came by human will, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1:21).

In the Scriptures we hear the very voice of God, graciously disclosed in the written speech to his creatures.

II. Why

Why would you want to read the Bible? What are you hoping to get out of it? Well, based on our definition above—that the scriptures are the self-disclosure of God to his creatures—the core reason we come to the Bible is to hear God’s voice.

We need to hear God’s voice, first of all, to know him. The Bible reveals to us the character of God and the work of God, especially his saving work revealed in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

We need to hear God’s voice in order to see ourselves, both as we were made to be (Genesis 1:26-28), and as we are this side of the fall (Romans 3:23).

We need to hear God’s voice in order to live in accord with his intention. The Scriptures are fundamentally relational documents. They are not mere history, or a record of God’s words and work in the past. They are his word for us today (Romans 15:4, cf. 1 Corinthians 10:6).

III. How

Okay, if the Bible is God’s word, how should we then read?

Many years ago I was taught an acronym for Bible reading: CPRS. We should read:

1. Carefully

2. Prayerfully

3. Repeatedly

4. Slowly

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Carefully

What does it mean to read carefully? It means that we must pay attention to what we are reading. This is harder than it sounds, and frankly it’s a lot harder than it was when I first learned this acronym. We live in a world where multi-billion-dollar-companies are entirely invested in harvesting and selling your attention and the associated data. This is linked to that handy glowing screen, on which you are likely reading this very article. You might feel focused at the moment, but we are only seconds away from you being distracted by a text or a phone call or an email notification. And even if those things don’t come, you are distracted, at least subconsciously, by the anticipation.

So, practically speaking, this means that careful Bible reading is going to require some separation. It’s going to mean you need to create a time and place—even if it’s just 10 minutes—where your phone isn’t with you, and you pick up your paper Bible and carefully read. Give yourself some space to think. As Sinclair Ferguson put it plainly, “Christians need to think about what the Bible says.”4

Try to notice things. What do you notice? It helps to keep a note pad or even a sticky note in or near your Bible to jot things down. Ask questions. What kind of questions? I’ll include a starter list below.

Prayerfully

The Psalmist wrote: “Help me understand your instruction” (Psalm 119:34, CSB). If we are going to rightly understand God’s word, then we must ask God to help us understand his words.

We also pray as we read the Bible because the Bible itself is the best school of prayer. As you read the Bible, you will learn God’s language. You will encounter God’s actions in history, you will learn about his power, his promises, and his priorities. And while normal reading skills are genuinely useful, and advanced study and thought will help you along the way, ultimately, this is a spiritual endeavor. To quote Martin Luther, the 16th century church reformer:

“That the Holy Scriptures cannot be penetrated by study and talent is most certain. Therefore your first duty is to pray…for no master of the divine words exists except the Author of these words.”5

Pray for understanding, and pray for the ability and desire to obey his words (Philippians 2:13-14).

Repeatedly

I was once listening to a lecture by New Testament scholar D.A. Carson, and he said something that, at one level, was obvious…but that I had never really integrated intentionally into my Bible reading. What he pointed out was that the Bible is meditative literature.

What he meant by that is that the Bible is meant to be read little by little, with you going back over and chewing on, mulling over, meditating, upon what you’ve just read. You shouldn’t expect to sit down and give it a single read-through and understand everything.

That should encourage you. Over the years I’ve heard many people bemoan the fact that they read something and don’t understand it, or even forget it. Friends: it’s okay. Just read it.

And read it again.

And again.

And again.

“Blessed is the man…[whose] delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night” (Psalm 1:1–2). Meditation, biblically speaking, is not the emptying of your mind. It is fixing your mind on something, focusing on it, and turning it over and over and over. Reading something repeatedly is a basic form of meditation.

Slowly

Don’t be in a hurry. Even if your time available is short, just be okay with reading a very short passage and slowly reading over it. I would encourage you to read out loud. This is a great way to slow yourself down, engage more of your senses, and increase your comprehension and retention. I will even do this with longer passages if I have a lot of time but am trying to fightmy mind drifting away.

Don’t be embarrassed to read slow. I love what my old pastor, Dave Donnerberg, used to say: “You don’t read the Bible to finish. You read the Bible to change.” Reading the Bible in such a way that God changes you, from the inside out, does not come from speed reading. It comes from slow reading.

IV. Specifics

As you start reading the Bible, I would suggest you set a specific time of day when you will read the Bible every day. That’s not because God will zap you dead or be disappointed in you if you miss a day, but because if you want this to be a habit, it really is going to be hard to establish if you don’t make it an every day thing. Most people are going to have better success in the morning. And I would set aside 10-15 minutes to start with. Even if you have more time available, start there until the habit is established, so that it doesn’t feel overwhelming. And then, don’t feel bad or give up if you miss a day (or a week!), just hop back on the horse and keep going.

It will also be beneficial to establishing the habit if you set a regular place. For me that has some flex—my kitchen table is “the place”, but I will move outside to my patio if the weather is nice. It really helps me to smell fresh air and hear the birds as I read and pray.

I would suggest starting with some well-known passages. Read those passages repeatedly until you feel ready to move on. At the end of this post I will attach a 60-day plan you can use, if that is helpful to you.

Also, below you will find the questions I promised above. I wrote these down originally for my older son, as he and I have started to read the Bible together. The first five are intended to help you think carefully, and the next three to help you read prayerfully, and hopefully you will be able to answer them all as you read repeatedly and slowly.

Careful Questions and Prayerful Questions:

Careful Questions:

a) What did I notice?

b) What is confusing, or do I not understand?

c) What does this teach me about God?

d) What does this teach me about myself?

e) How can I obey this part of God’s word?

Prayerful Questions:

a) How can I thank God based on what I read?

b) What else do I need to ask for his help with?

c) What do I need to ask him to help me understand?

V. Finally

You may have noticed that the last two questions were more broad. That is intentional. Reading God’s word meditatively will help us to understand his word better, but it is also a doorway to communing with him. It’s going to bring to mind things far beyond what you read. Like a conversation with a dear friend or trusted mentor, the conversation may drift as you pray. That’s okay. Embrace conversation with your Heavenly Father.

Reading God’s word is one of the most rewarding things you can do. I cannot promise that it will instantly change your life. But I can assure you that, if you dedicate yourself to it, it will shape your life.

May God add his blessing to your reading of his word.

“For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.” (Isaiah 55:10-11)

60 Day Plan

Below is a very simple introduction that I wrote for my brother before the first time he had to preach. I was going over it again to walk through with a young man in our congregation as he prepares to preach for the first time.

If you have never preached before, or are new to the craft, I hope this is helpful to you. For those who’ll never preach, maybe it will give you a little glimpse of what’s going on in the lead up to Sunday morning (turns out the preacher has to work more than one day per week!).

Of course, I’m not saying everything that could be said here. A season preacher may read this and think, “how could you have left out____?!” Well, drop a comment below to tell me what I missed.

An Introductory Guide to Sermon Preparation

Introduction:

Below I’m going to outline something approximating the process I go through to move from text to sermon. I don’t necessarily check off every box every week, but this is the rough process. Where possible, I’ll include a link if you want to read more on each point.

1. Pick a text. It’s easier to select a portion of scripture based on some natural separation in the text (a specific Psalm, a natural division in a narrative, a particular Proverb, a paragraph in an argument, etc). The earlier you pick your text the better off you’ll be, because the work can’t really get started until you’ve done that. If you have to preach for any length of time, I strongly suggest picking a book of the Bible and starting to work through passage by passage. This removes one of the biggest stressors in preaching: what are we going to talk about next week?

   https://lifewayresearch.com/2019/09/18/12-reasons-to-commit-to-expository-preaching/

2. Work to understand the selected text. In Jen Wilkin’s book Women of the Word she summarizes the process with the acronym CIA: Comprehension (understanding the words, sentences, paragraphs, etc), Interpretation (understand what the author meant to convey to the original readers by those words), Application (how does that original meaning impact my life/thinking/heart today). Most of the rest of what I’m going to list after this is just an extension of the Comprehension and the Interpretation, and then the sermon writing is figuring out Application for myself and the audience together.

   Here’s the link to her book.

3. Read your passage. Over. And over. And over. Listen to it. Have someone else read it to you. Read it in more than one translation. Go verse by verse and summarize each verse in your own words. Try to notice if there are words that are repeated, and write down any questions which come to mind. Try to answer those questions. The goal of reading over and over is to come up with the main meaning of the passage: what was the original author trying to communicate to his original audience? Once I’ve determined that main meaning, then I want to see how the other pieces of the passage build to or otherwise support that meaning.

   https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/how-to-read-the-bible-for-yourself

4. Summarize, in one sentence, the driving theme of the sermon. I don’t always do this, but believe me, the sermon is better when I do. I’ve also heard it suggested by some that this sentence should be less than 11 words, which makes it clearer in your mind. Then make sure everything else you say in some way is serving that sentence. For example, for John 3:16, my sentence might be something like: “Receive the eternal love of God by believing in his Son.” You might notice that the verse is focused on what God has done. The sermon sentence is focused on an action in the congregation. Preaching expects a response, and so sermons should be constructed accordingly. I don’t just want the congregation to know about God’s love, I want them to receive and experience that love. So you explain the text, but you also press home the need to respond to the truth in the text.

   Here is a link to some affordable classes by really good preachers: https://simeontrust.org/online-courses/

5. Try to outline the most logical progression of the points. Sometimes that just follows the order in which they arise in the passage. Sometimes you might rearrange in order to make it more memorable or easier to follow.

   https://hbcharlesjr.com/resource-library/articles/how-to-structure-a-sermon/

6. Once you have your points outlined, try to come up with both illustrations (that show this truth in action; this could be a story, an analogy, sometimes even a joke works here) and applications (what do I do with this truth?) for all of your points. They might not all make it into the sermon, but try to think it through and make sure that your sermon does have both illustration and application. Illustrations help people understand and remember, and application is what they’re looking for as the “take-home” value.

   https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/5-types-of-sermon-illustrations-and-how-to-use-them/

   https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/learning-the-art-of-sermon-application/

7. Once you have that structure in place, then it’s easier to start writing. The two most important sections to focus on writing are the introduction (you’re trying to get their attention/earn a hearing) and the conclusion (people can get over turbulence in-flight so long as you don’t crash the plane at the end).

   https://hbcharlesjr.com/resource-library/articles/on-writing-sermon-manuscripts/

8. On a really practical note, type in a font that’s easy on your eyes and convenient to read. Times, Georgia, Cambria, etc. Basically any serif font that is easy on the eyes. I also want the font to be big enough to easily read, so at least 12 point. And you should also consider line spacing. I prefer 1.5 (most word processors are set to 1 or 1.15; college papers are usually 2 or “double-spaced”). You just want the lines far enough apart that you don’t get lost moving through.

9. As far as length, until you get comfortable, I’d shoot for 20-25 minutes. For me that is about 5ish pages of 12 point 1.5 spaced manuscript, also taking into account bigger spaces for new sections of the sermon, etc.

   https://lifewayresearch.com/2020/05/19/why-i-stopped-preaching-long-sermons/

   https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/preachers-toolkit-how-long-should-my-sermons-be/

10. Pray your heart out. This should really run through the whole process, but especially getting ready to preach. And I find I do some of my hardest praying while I’m preaching.

    This is a super helpful, short book:

    Enjoy Your Prayer Life by Michael Reeves

I hope this is helpful. If it’s not-well, you get what you pay for! If you need any other help, advice, etc-just holler! I’m more than glad to help in any way I can.

I’m planning to start a series of short articles with suggestions for my fellow bi-vocational laborers, but let me just drop one point that I think is crucial to making bi-vocational ministry work:

Realistic Expectations are Everything.

The experience of the church, and the pastor, are deeply affected by the expectations they have for what ministry can be and what it should be. Until then, though, I commend this conversation to you.

I’m never early to a writing party. This is the second in a two-part series, which logically would have come out last week. But here we are. I think the truths are timeless, so you can schedule a text or email to yourself with the link to read it before next Father’s Day, if you find it helpful. Here’s part one.

3 John 1-15 (ESV), 1 The elder to the beloved Gaius, whom I love in truth.

Beloved, I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be in good health, as it goes well with your soul. 3 For I rejoiced greatly when the brothers came and testified to your truth, as indeed you are walking in the truth. 4 I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.

5 Beloved, it is a faithful thing you do in all your efforts for these brothers, strangers as they are, 6 who testified to your love before the church. You will do well to send them on their journey in a manner worthy of God. 7 For they have gone out for the sake of the name, accepting nothing from the Gentiles. 8 Therefore we ought to support people like these, that we may be fellow workers for the truth.

9 I have written something to the church, but Diotrephes, who likes to put himself first, does not acknowledge our authority. 10 So if I come, I will bring up what he is doing, talking wicked nonsense against us. And not content with that, he refuses to welcome the brothers, and also stops those who want to and puts them out of the church.

11 Beloved, do not imitate evil but imitate good. Whoever does good is from God; whoever does evil has not seen God. 12 Demetrius has received a good testimony from everyone, and from the truth itself. We also add our testimony, and you know that our testimony is true.

13 I had much to write to you, but I would rather not write with pen and ink. 14 I hope to see you soon, and we will talk face to face.

15 Peace be to you. The friends greet you. Greet the friends, each by name.

In the previous post, I argued that John’s statement in verse 4, I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in truth, expresses an important biblical principle: joy in Jesus is a communal reality, not merely an individual one. Specifically, the joy fathers and pastors experience in the obedience of their children (physical or spiritual) to the truth should be our greatest earthly joy.

But as I reflected on that reality while reading 3 John, it also seemed to me that John is helpfully demonstrating for us some principles as to how we can help our children walk in the truth. And so I want to share those with you here.1

I think this short letter gives us at least five angles from which to approach this task, and they’re all verbal (which we’ll lean into with the sixth and the final point). So we might call these five modes of speech to help your children walk in truth.

1. Pray for them, v2-3

Once he’s past the formal greeting, the first thing John says is that he is praying for Gaius. And his prayer is a simple one: he wants all to go well with him. And that wellness consists of two parts. Earthly wellbeing and spiritual wellbeing. “Beloved, I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be in good health, as it goes well with your soul.”

Friends, it’s easy to get really busy doing stuff for the wellbeing of our children. We haul them to games and concerts and school activities of various flavors. We take them to church and children’s and youth activities because we care about their souls, too. You put money in the 529 plan, you help them look for good scholarship opportunities. You’re making sure they get work experience to develop that part of their character. You make sure they get the medical help they may need. These are all good.

But do you pray for your children? Do you pray for the Lord to give them their daily bread, today and tomorrow, and in the decades to come? Do you pray for those real material needs to be met, and that all would go well with them? Some Christians feel guilty praying that way. Should I really pray for earthly blessings for my children? That doesn’t seem very spiritual. But you don’t need to bad. John didn’t. Your children need, as Jesus says, all these things. And you should pray for God’s provision in their lives.

You should also pray for their spiritual lives. For the Lord to give them the gift of faith, for their eyes to be open to the reality of his presence and provision. It’s easy to be blinded by the horizontal and forget the vertical. Your child’s deepest need is reconciliation with the Almighty God of the Universe through His Son Jesus Christ. Do you pray for them to trust in him, and then to grow in grace? Do you pray for them to keep in step with the Spirit? I’m sure part of John’s joy in seeing the obedience to the truth in his spiritual children was the fact that he was seeing something he had prayed for. “For I rejoiced greatly when the brothers came and testified to your truth, as indeed you are walking in the truth” (v3).

Fathers, pray for your children.

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2. Affirm them (where they are), 5-6a

Fathers, you ought also to affirm your children. “5 Beloved, it is a faithful thing you do in all your efforts for these brothers, strangers as they are, 6 who testified to your love before the church.”

In his previous letter, John had warned the church about false teachers who had gone out into the world, and exhorted them not to receive such people into the church or support them in any way. Here, we find the opposite. Gaius has welcomed true ministers of the gospel, though he did not personally know them. And John makes it a point to say that was a faithful thing you did. This is not just “good job” in a generic sense, but it’s observing a specific action and calling out the goodness of that action, recognizing it as an evidence of grace, and making clear that it was not in vain.

There are few things more powerful when leading people than words of specific positive affirmation. I saw this as someone who is quick to point out the negative, speedy to correct an error, with a keen eye to every flaw—and friends, there’s a time and a place for that—but those things will only be heard and received if they are coming in the context of love. And love presents itself as being for the other person.

Fathers, do your kids know that you are for them, not against them? Have you created an oppositional atmosphere in your home, or do you view your children as a gift—like arrows in the hands of a skilled warrior meant to be sent into the battle?

This is something you can do whether your children are two or twenty-two or forty-two or sixty-two. If you recognize something good—an action, an attitude, or a word—something that is pleasing to the Lord, meditate on it, and tell your son or daughter what you see. Affirm that which is good and noble and right in them. And then, encourage them to build on that.

3. Encourage them (to go further), 6b-8

John commended Gaius for his reception of these brothers, and then continued,

“You will do well to send them on their journey in a manner worthy of God. 7 For they have gone out for the sake of the name, accepting nothing from the Gentiles. 8 Therefore we ought to support people like these, that we may be fellow workers for the truth.”

John called out a specific action in Gaius: now he points out how he can build on that foundation and continue to grow in godliness. He tells him how he can act in a manner worthy of God and be a fellow worker with these traveling brothers in their dissemination of the truth. This is why I made a point under the previous heading to say this was not generic praise. “You’re a good boy” isn’t that helpful.

Being a pastor, I hear a lot of “good sermon, pastor” — and while I’m thankful for that and strongly prefer it to, “that stinks, you’re awful” — it’s really not much to build on. Specificity gives a place to build either a constructive critique or, to our point here, a clear vision for growth.

Fathers, we are living in an age where people really buy into the lie of “you can be anything you want.” Your child cannot be anything he or she wants. God made them a certain way. They are wired to do certain things. He puts before them certain opportunities. And one of your roles as a father is to help your children see clearly who they are, where there opportunities lie, and develop accordingly. Affirm what’s good where they are, but also encourage them to go further.

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4. Warn them (about troubles), v9-10

Now, one of the biggest roadblocks to them going further will be the various kinds of opposition they will face. John saw that Diotrephes, who it seems was also fairly prominent in this Ephesian church, was going to be causing problems for Gaius in his task of sending the brothers on in a worthy way.

“9 I have written something to the church, but Diotrephes, who likes to put himself first, does not acknowledge our authority. 10 So if I come, I will bring up what he is doing, talking wicked nonsense against us. And not content with that, he refuses to welcome the brothers, and also stops those who want to and puts them out of the church.”

As fathers, we shouldn’t send our children into the world with an overly rosy picture of humanity. We shouldn’t send them to church with an overly rosy view of humanity. All human beings are image bearers of God, and should be treated with dignity, love, and respect. And some of them are a real pain in the neck, and speak a lot of wicked nonsense. Some of them are going to not acknowledge the authorities you have taught them to recognize—yourself, their teachers, leaders in the church—and you need to warn them about that so that they can stand against the folly, and not wither in the face of it. For Gaius to follow through on John’s instruction, he was going to have to be willing to stand up in the face of Diatrophean opposition and not melt.

Fathers, help your children walk in the truth by telling them ahead of time that there will be those who oppose them.

5. Remind them (who is worth imitating), v11-12

But, here again, we should not settle for negative warnings—we must also put in front of them positive examples. Remind them who is worth imitating.

“11 Beloved, do not imitate evil but imitate good. Whoever does good is from God; whoever does evil has not seen God. 12 Demetrius has received a good testimony from everyone, and from the truth itself. We also add our testimony, and you know that our testimony is true.”

Do you have regular conversations with your children where you evaluate the actions of those around them? You have to be careful here, we don’t want to raise a bunch of Pharisees who think they are better than others, but when you leave Wal Mart and we all saw that kid screaming at his mom, you’re well within bounds to ask— “was that appropriate? Will you speak to your mother that way? If you did speak to your mother in such a fashion, how might that alter your life expectancy?” Or, as you’re watching movies or reading books together, have honest conversations about the character of the characters. What is less than admirable? What is admirable?

It gets poo-pooed a lot these days as a way of reading, but a lot of Old Testament narratives teach us by painting certain characters in a good or bad light. We should learn from those divinely inspired narrators. I’m preaching in Genesis, and Joseph is one of two genuine exemplars in the Old Testament, in the sense of someone whose flaws are all off-camera. Not so with his older brother Judah. Joseph is a great example to say, “be like him!” But Judah’s story is also very instructive. He goes from a very unsavory character, to one who recognizes his sin, and then becomes a man willing to lay down his life for his brothers. Notice those things, notice character arcs, and hold them before your children.

We are imitative creatures, and when we speak about the people and characters we admire, and why we admire them, we are training their loves. “Dare to be a Daniel—or a Shadrach, Meshach, or Abednego” is a perfectly legitimate lesson to press home when you’re reading through Daniel in family devotions. In the church as Ephesus, Demetrius was a good dude, the kind of man worthy Gaius’ imitation—everyone saw it, the truth itself testified to him, and John throws in his own good word for good measure. Who are you teaching your children to be like?

6. Talk to them (in person), v13-14

Of course, all of that requires talking, and that’s our final point: you’ve got to talk to your children, and it is strongly preferable to do that in person whenever possible. Teach your children that you value them and their well being by being present with them. Obviously this changes for those of you whose children have grown up and moved out, but even there, prioritizing time together face-to-face is still, to the extent possible, a genuine investment. “13 I had much to write to you, but I would rather not write with pen and ink. 14 I hope to see you soon, and we will talk face to face.”

Make regular space to speak personally, positively, and constructively into their lives. Face-to-face.

Conclusion

Fathers, be intentional. There is no greater earthly joy than to see your children walking in the truth. Utilize these five modes of speech—prayer, affirmation, encouragement, warning, reminder, all in the context of regular face-to-face conversation—to invest in their well being. Be intentional. Children don’t stumble into the truth, they are discipled into the truth.

I’m never early to a writing party. This is the first in a two-part series, which logically would have come out last week. But here we are. I think the truths are timeless, so you can schedule a text or email to yourself with the link to read it before next Father’s Day.

Joy

Fathers, where do you find joy? In your team winning? In a raise at work? In a well-deserved vacation? In a tree stand on an autumn’s morning? I’m not here to heckle you about any of those things—I think these, and many other places, are perfectly legitimate sources of joy.

But where do you find your deepest joy? To answer that question biblically I’d direct your attention to a brief letter in the New Testament: 3 John.

3 John 3-4, 3 For I rejoiced greatly when the brothers came and testified to your truth, as indeed you are walking in the truth. 4 I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.

Walking in the Truth

In seeking to understand John’s words in these verses, we should first ask what he means by “walking in the truth.” It’s not a complex idea, but it’s an important one. John, in his first epistle, has three running tests to help Christians evaluate whether they in fact have salvation. There’s a doctrinal test—do you believe in the right Jesus? Namely, do you believe that Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ—the promised Messiah? Do you believe he is the Son of God? Do you believe he is the only Savior who can make you right with God? Good. That’s test one.

Second, do you live the right way? That is not to say you must meet some standard of perfection—remember, part of what we believe about Jesus is that he is the Savior—but if you believe in him, then your life will start to change. You will walk in the light as he is in the light. You will embrace a life of repentance and obedience. If that’s you, then you’ve also passed the moral test.

Third, there is the love test. Do you love the people of God, the brotherhood of believers? If you are to love the unseen God that will necessarily include loving his visible people, his children—your brothers and sisters.

I think when John says walking in the truth here, this is exactly what he means. He’s heard the report of some people in the church walking in truth (2 John 4). They are living the Christian life to the full, trusting in Jesus, repenting of their sins and pursuing obedience, and loving one another. And this reality brings John joy. In fact, he says that he has no greater joy than to know his children are walking in truth.

Too Far?

Now, if you’ve been in church long enough, you might think that John has gotten a little carried away with his rhetoric. Shouldn’t his greatest joy be in his personal salvation? His own walk with Christ? Shouldn’t his identity in Christ trump all his other concerns, even whether or not those whom he loves are themselves walking in the truth? Jesus + nothing = everything, right?

That sounds pretty pious. It sounds like the sort of thing you’d hear in a sermon or on a Christian podcast. Your personal relationship with Jesus is the most important thing. You shouldn’t look anywhere else for your joy.

Here’s the deal, though. The Bible, that is, the B.I.B.L.E, paints a more complicated picture. Hear the words of the Apostle Paul:

Romans 9:2-3, I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh.

Here, it seems Paul is giving us the inverse of John’s statement in 3 John 4—his greatest sorrow is knowing that his kinsmen are cut off from Christ by their unbelief. They are not walking in the truth, and thus are not safe in Christ. Paul then goes so far as to wish that he himself were cut off if it would mean salvation for his kinsmen! This is a profound love, and it displays a deeply biblical principle: our love for others and concern for their wellbeing is intertwined with our own experience of joy.

To be sure, the apostle Paul writes, I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him (Philippians 3:9-10). The Lord Jesus asks, rhetorically, For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul? (Matthew 16:26). But these are statements relativizing the value of transient and earth-bound goods. Friends, human beings are not transient or earth bound. Human beings, made in the image of God, will outlast the sun, the moon, and the stars.

And those for whom you have a deep responsibility—your spouse and children—rightly hold a special place in your heart, and their well-being is rightly tied to your experience of joy. For a pastor, this tie extends to those in our spiritual charge, the members of the church. So Paul writes of the daily pressure of his anxiety for all the churches (2 Corinthians 11:28). The spiritual wellbeing of those in our charge is not the bedrock of our joy—Christ himself is the Rock on which we stand. When things are not well with those we love we cling to the Rock who is Christ, for he will hold us fast through those times of storm. But, again, to look to Jesus directly, we see him weeping over Jerusalem. He would have gathered the people of the land as a hen gathers her chicks, and he was heartbroken over their refusal to come (Matthew 23:37).

So, let me say again: John is right to value his children walking in truth as his greatest earthly joy. This joy is not an idolization of the family (or the church family), it is a right experience of joy in Christ’s work in the life of others.

Which is a long way of saying: joy in Jesus is a communal reality, not merely an individual one.

The next post will consider some of the ways 3 John helps us see how to help our children walk in the truth.

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From Prisoner to Prince: The Joseph Story in Biblical Theology

Samuel Emadi (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2022)

I came to this book with high expectations. I have been a (fairly) regular listener to the “Bible Talk” podcast that Emadi cohosts with Alex Duke and Jim Hamilton, since 2020. Familiar with him from that podcast, I knew Emadi has a keen eye for detail and structure in the Biblical text.

The central thesis of this book is that Joseph’s story, if read carefully and canonically, serves as a type or a foreshadowing of a greater Joseph figure to come. That is, Joseph can legitimately be seen as a type of Christ.

As I read, I was both delighted and disappointed. I was delighted in just the ways hinted at above — rigorous attention to the text. The early part of the book defines biblical theology and typology. Emadi then sets the Joseph story within the toledot structure of Genesis, and spends successive chapters examining Joseph’s place in relationship to the covenant promises of kingship, seed, land and blessing. The final two chapters examine the Joseph story as it is explicated or alluded to in both the OT and the NT. The discussion is meaty, nuanced, and to borrow from DA Carson’s preface, “interlocking and cumulative…finally convincing.”

The disappointment is perhaps unfair. Emadi is a clear and compelling verbal communicator, and so I was hoping for a compelling writing style, maybe some sparkling turns of phrase — and that’s definitely not this book. The further I read, the more I thought “this reads like a PhD dissertation.” And indeed, as it turns out, Emadi’s 2016 dissertation from the SBTS is on this very subject, and most of the chapters overlap. Which explains why there are north of 400 footnotes in a 150 page book.

So, in sum — this book is very worthwhile for someone preaching on Joseph or interested in reading a careful and nuanced example of a typological reading. It is quite thorough, and yes, convincing. Just know it won’t be your easiest read of the week.

New Russia’s Primer

M. ILIN; translated by George S. Counts & Nucia P. Lodge (New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1931)

What a fascinating and horrifying book. Written to introduce Russian students between the ages of 12–14 with the Soviet Union’s 5-year plan, this book paints a rosy — no, not rosy, that would be too natural — a stark white with Soviet R…

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Pastoring Men

Patrick Morley (Chicago: Moody, 2016)

In this book, Patrick Morley seeks to help pastors and church leaders understand what makes men tick, and then offers practical help for starting to reach the men in your church and community. This may or may not include an exclusively “men’s” ministry, but must include a vision for seeing every man in your church discipled.

I appreciated Morley’s heart in this, and there are a number of useful insights, especially as he related the relevant literature on organizational change to the biblical example of Nehemiah. However, I also thought the book was poorly written, not well structured, and often read like an extended ad for Morley’s other books and classes. I will probably write a paper drawing some of the key insights and keep the book for reference, but I won’t ever re-read it in full.

The Amazing Dr. Ransom’s Bestiary of Adorable Fallacies

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Slow Productivity

The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout Cal Newport (New York: Portfolio/Penguin, 2024)

In the latest of his books relating to knowledge work, Cal Newport sets forth a vision of productivity which is deeply counter-cultural and, for many, counter-intuitive.

Newport argues that much of modern knowledge work is dominated by a frenzied pseudo-productivity, in which visible activity is the primary means of measuring useful effort (22). What this means, functionally, is that if you are quick to reply to texts, emails, slack messages, and phone calls, then everyone (especially your boss) will see how busy you are, and that will translate into you being seen as a good employee. Regardless of whether you genuinely produce anything of value.

Newport rightly sees that this is a completely nonsensical way to work. All of this fractured attention makes it nearly impossible to produce genuinely valuable work. The nature of this hyperactive pseudo-productivity means we’re tempted — nay, compelled — to be plugged into this work all the time. So we’re checking emails at our kids’ baseball games, taking our laptops on vacation, and sleeping with work plugged in within arms reach.

But this doesn’t make us more productive. It doesn’t help us produce rare or lasting or valuable work. It just keeps us busy. There is a better way.

Enter Slow Productivity. After briefly examining the problem, Newport spends the bulk of the book on three long chapters, each devoted to a core tenet of his slow-productivity philosophy: Do Fewer Things, Work at a Natural Pace, and Obsess Over Quality.

Do Fewer Things

“Do Fewer Things” feels radical in an age where we are bombarded at every turn with opportunities, demands, and expectations that more and more will be added to our plates. But doing fewer things is based on the acknowledgement that most of us have a very narrow range of activities that “move the needle,” as it were. For me, this primarily means studying and people-ing. There are, of course, admin tasks that must be handled. Newport has helpful advice (that won’t be new to you if you listen to his podcast). But he also has helpful advice on those big, important tasks. Such as, work on fewer things at a time (60-74). He also suggests taming your daily goals (75-76), which may be one of the most revolutionary and freeing ideas in the book for my life. I shouldn’t try to write a sermon, a newsletter post, and a paper today. I can batch study for those things together, but when I need to do the most cognitively demanding thing — writing — I should focus on one task per day.

One more piece of advice in this section that resonated was his exhortation to hire professionals to do things you could but shouldn’t do. Spending money — on professionals, or good software that simplifies your life — can be invaluable in trying to find focus.

Embrace the Natural

In his second principle, Newport encourages the reader to work at a natural pace. The core insight here is that human beings are not machines, and mental work is fundamentally different than factory, assembly-line labor. Our brains do not produce widgets, and require rhythms of rest, seasonality, and reprieve in order to produce their best work. I was reminded of Douglas Wilson’s insight that we should desire to be fruitful like a tree (Psalm 1), not efficient like a machine.

I was also pondering this as a pastor, and thinking about the value of having time to stew on a message. One thing I’ve started doing is trying to read in preparation for sermon series 6-12 months in the future. That way, even if that isn’t fresh in my mind, I’m not staring at the passage and thinking about it as a sermon text for the first time four days before I’m standing up to say, “thus says the LORD.” By having the text in my meditative consciousness for months on end I’m able to iterate different ways of structuring, illustrating, explaining, or applying a sermon.

This principle also applies to my other writing, too. Rather than trying to dash off a paper or a newsletter post, starting early enough that I have time to stew always improves the quality of the final product.

Some of Newport’s advice here is gold. “Double Your Project Timelines” and “Simplify Your Workday” (131-135) were particularly helpful. Though I can’t yet implement everything he suggests, there are pieces that I obviously need to — like scheduling study time in a way that treats it as almost sacrosanct.

A large portion of this chapter was essentially devoted to the idea of seasonality and how to create seasons — even small ones — in your life. The practical tips were useful, but it did just make me think, over and over, how wise our ancestors were to have seasons of work, seasons of rest, and seasons of feasting and joy. Read through the Torah with an eye to rest and parties, and you’ll be surprised.

Quality is What Counts

The final element of Newport’s Slow Productivity philosophy is “obsess over quality.” And honestly, it’s the point that makes the book work. There’s a certain type of laziness that could find cover in the importance of “Do Fewer Things” (phew!) and “Work at a Natural Pace” (as little as possible!) — but would choke on this last point. Obsessing over quality doesn’t mean a perfectionism that refuses to “ship” work, but it does mean really caring about what you produce.

As he does throughout the book, Newport draws on individual stories to draw general principles or lessons — and here he focuses heavily on the recording artist Jewel, who epitomizes a “focus on quality over quick” (170). The reality of such prioritizing sometimes means you will miss opportunities (173). But if you do, in fact, produce quality work, you will likely have something more important than short-term opportunities — long-term options.

Such a pursuit will require cultivating taste (182-186), honest feedback (189-191), and real sacrifice (194-193, 205-208). It will also, at some point, require you to get clear on what you’re really trying to do. In regard to this, there was a line in this chapter that grabbed me, when Newport was discussing his own study of films, particularly Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs.

That, I thought, is what my writing life is all about. I want to put the theology of Augustine and Luther and Calvin in the vernacular of the plumber and the mailman and the farmer. I want to take the interest in philosophy and theology and ethics that I find on Substack and put it in language that would communicate on Facebook. But that project is a lot harder than it sounds. It doesn’t come in snatches of time here and there, squeezed into the frenzied pace of life given to pseudo-productivity. If I’m going to do the work I’m meant to do, it will require a willingness to go deep, and go slow. It’s time to do fewer things. It’s time to work at a natural pace. It’s time to obsess over quality.

Adoption is the gift
of being brought in.
My life must now shift—
He has taken my sin,

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Brandon J. O’Brien
The Strategically Small Church
2nd Edition, Baker Academic, 2025

Brandon O’Brien argues in this book for a different ministry paradigm than has been the norm in evangelicalism over the past 50 (plus) years. Rather than seeing “small” churches as anomalies, or problems to be fixed, small churches are the norm both globally and historically. Therefore, we must alter our perceptions. Instead of viewing the small church with a scarcity mindset (“we don’t have the talent, the budget, the facilities, etc., to do effective ministry”), we should instead see our normal churches as loved and graced by God with everything necessary to please him.

O’Brien devotes one chapter to giving examples from few large ministries attempting to “get small” in order to be more effective. The upshot of this is that your normal church already is small, and therefore positioned for effectiveness. He then goes on to discuss the authenticity of a fully local (as opposed to regional) church, the value of being focused and program-lite (he uses the term nimble), the opportunities small churches have to empower community ministry, the immense value of cross-generational relationships, and the unique characteristics of worship in a small church.

O’Brien’s style is engaging—he does a good job of writing about ministries in various settings in a way that invites you to consider the possibilities in your own context. I often skip stories in non-fiction books because they feel like a ham-fisted way to connect with the reader or an easy way to puff an article-length idea into a full book. Not so here. Whether the congregations in question are Lutherans in western Washington or Baptists in southern Arkansas, O’Brien helps you catch a glimpse of how God is at work in congregations all over the place.

That “all over the place” is theological, not simply numeric or cultural. O’Brien operates in this book with what he calls a “minimally viable ecclesiology” (p. 21) and will later refer to a “minimally viable theology of worship” (p. 115). That might bother you. It would bother me in a theology class, an elders meeting, or a sermon. But in the context of what he is doing with this book—trying to shake loose your dusty paradigms about church health and success—I could get past my own disagreements and value the lessons there were to learn, even from those with whom I profoundly disagree.

In the end, I share O’Brien’s vision of the normal church. These churches may be poorly positioned, much of the time, to attract religious consumers. But they have been given by God himself everything they need to make disciples. And, “[t]he church’s God-given job description is to make disciples, not to attract consumers.”

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This is the audio of chapter two from my book, A Healthy Marriage. If you enjoy, please follow the link below to purchase—and then rate and review on Amazon, it helps others find it. If you don’t find it helpful, feel free to buy it anyway, but you can pass on the review, ha!

A Healthy Marriage on Amazon.com