The Real Reason We Struggle to Pray?

By / Mar 18

A few weeks ago, my friend pulled me aside after our community group gathering. We had finished our discussion time with about 20 minutes of prayer together, and he was both challenged and encouraged. He said, “I’ve been a Christian for decades, but I’ve never learned to pray.” He continued, “I know I’m supposed to pray. But I don’t know what to do. I love Bible study, and I like serving. But for some reason I can’t explain, I just don’t really pray.”

I have some version of this conversation at least monthly, typically when a new person or couple joins our church and is trying to make sense of our significant emphasis on prayer. Why is this the case? Why is prayer so difficult? If prayer is such a constant theme in the Scriptures from beginning to end, why do so many Christians feel like they don’t know how to pray and feel little desire to develop a praying life?

Of course, there are many folks who love prayer. They don’t just value prayer as a concept; they actually pray. Deeply. They believe it really does something. They feel intimately connected to God, and as a result, their lives are marked by a gentleness, increasing maturity, and relational quality that many of us are seeking. What do they know that we don’t?

There are many reasons why prayer doesn’t come easily for us. We’re busy people. We haven’t been trained in prayer. It’s just difficult to sit still for more than five minutes without sweating in distraction. These are all true, but I think it goes deeper than all this. Recently, an unexpected source helped me see this clearly.

Why We Really Struggle with Prayer

Ricky Gervais is a British comedian and actor best known for writing and starring in the original BBC version of The Office. Gervais’s standup comedy specials are not exactly clean, and he is an outspoken atheist. But on a recent tour, he joked about his atheism and shared his views on prayer.

“People ask me, ‘Do you pray?’ No. I don’t mind if you pray. People say, ‘I’m praying for you,’ and I say, ‘Thank you.’ But if you cancel the chemotherapy, I’ll say, ‘Don’t do that.’ Do both. Pray and do the chemotherapy. Because doing both is the same as just doing the chemo. If you’re going to do one, do the one that works.”[1]

I laughed at first. Gervais is a master of delivery. But then something settled in like a dark cloud. At the time, I had been a Christian for most of my life—one who regularly prayed at the start of every day. But as I reflected, I realized Gervais’s remarks might indeed represent my own view of prayer more than the biblical vision. (More than might; they did.) My commitment to prayer was often agnostic—as if I believed in the existence of the Divine and mentally assented to the importance of prayer but didn’t engage deeply with a personal, living God.

If you had witnessed the weakness and inconsistency of my prayers in that season of my life, you’d likely conclude that I didn’t really expect all that much out of prayer, opting instead for the things that “worked.” Following my life closely, you’d undoubtedly conclude that I relied far more on my intellect than the Holy Spirit, more on my own energies than the power of God. You’d watch every morning pass as I, functionally speaking, said a few weak prayers and then opened my eyes, laced up my Nikes, and got to work as if it all depended on me.

Or at least, that’s until a few years ago, when I began to discover the joy and power of prayer.

Rediscovering the Joy and Power of Prayer

Toward the end of 2019, I was experiencing a dangerous level of fatigue and apathy. Nothing was utterly falling apart, but I was struggling through daily life. My spiritual life was dry, and I could barely feel God’s presence and love. Our little church plant was stumbling through its infancy stage, and our three boys were wonderful and exhausting at once. I was keeping my rhythms of Scripture, prayer, and fellowship, but I felt discouraged and powerless.

I was running on the mercies and energy of the past, and I was reaching the bottom of the tank. I began crying out to God with a mixture of lament, accusation, and petition. Desperation, as it turns out, is a key ingredient in prayer.

In this wilderness season, I cried out to God in the spirit of Lamentations 2:19.

“Arise, cry out in the night,
as the watches of the night begin;
pour out your heart like water
in the presence of the Lord.” (NIV)

The Lord met me powerfully and gently in that wilderness season of pouring out my heart. I can’t say it was a sudden or explosive experience—like the ones I’ve read about in memoirs by Augustine and Blaise Pascal—and I didn’t reach the third heaven. But nonetheless, over the course of a few days, I felt swept up in the powerful mercies of God. His presence felt so real and tangible. His Word leaped off the page. I prayed for hours on end. I even gave fasting another try after years of avoiding it.

Now, let’s be clear: I have not become a prayer expert, nor have I become a super Christian. My journey is simply deepening. Said another way, I’ve come to understand these moments as personal “times of refreshing…from the Lord” (Acts 3:19–20, NIV). For the next few months, my prayer life came fully alive. I had newfound energy for life. My sweet wife, Jessie, was overjoyed that I had been lifted from my funk. My boys could notice a difference in me. In my ministry relationships, I timidly brought up my renewal to our leaders, and several of them were experiencing something similar. Something remarkable was happening.

Over the past few years, my prayer life has ebbed and flowed; many dry seasons and powerless morning quiet times have come and gone. But as I’ve pressed further into the presence of God, He has been gracious and faithful to meet me with an increased love for Him and for others. Perhaps you know this feeling well, too. Or perhaps you long for it.

These days, I’m simply asking for more—more of God’s presence, more of His Spirit’s fruit ripening in my life, more Christlikeness as I walk with Jesus. To seek more of God is not to be discontent, but rather it’s a content, sitting-on-the-Father’s-lap prayer of a weaned child, seeking to be fully engaged in God’s presence (Psalm 131).

What Prayer Does

These days, I still reflect on the comedian’s words—“don’t do prayer, do something that works”—but I’m seeking to remind myself just how much prayer really does.

What exactly does prayer do?

Prayer welcomes us into the embrace of the Father and retrains us to live from belovedness.

Prayer uncovers our fragmented lives and invites us into wholehearted living.

Prayer is the means by which God moves history toward the renewal of all things; it leads to breakthrough.

Prayer invites us to face pain and suffering with honesty and hope.

Prayer opens us to a life of celebration and thanksgiving and teaches us to praise.

Prayer connects us to other believers more deeply and the mission of God more fruitfully.

Prayer increases our experience of the Holy Spirit’s presence and power.

Prayer reorients us to eternity—the coming new creation.

In short, prayer does stuff. And I’m not the only one who’s discovered this.

Over the past few years, along with my own spiritual awakening, our church has caught a vision for prayer. We have a long way to go, but we have become a praying church. Our calendar is filled with prayer meetings, and people are praying with joy, passion, and power. We’ve seen people experience profound inner healing. We’ve seen marriages restored. Members have seen their long-time friends come to Christ and be baptized. Lives are being changed, and it’s not our music, our level of production, and (certainly not) our preaching skills. It’s prayer.

Our lives are powerless apart from prayer. Prayer is the way in which we enter the presence of God and gain access to His strength, peace, and wisdom. And the more we experience God’s presence in prayer, the more we will keep turning to Him. Prayer cultivates a hunger for God. Prayer makes us more content (we are happy with less) and hungrier for God’s presence (we want more of Him).

There are many reasons it’s hard to pray deeply. But we don’t have to be afraid that prayer doesn’t do much. Prayer is powerful because God is powerful. Prayer works because we have a loving, sovereign Father who loves to answer prayer. And He invites us to pour out our hearts to Him. Why hold back?

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[1] Ricky Gervais, Netflix special, “Supernature,” 2022.

Editor’s Note: For more encouragement in prayer, see Jeremy Linneman’s book Pour Out Your Heart: Discovering Joy, Strength, and Intimacy with God through Prayer, available today from B&H Publishing.



Captain of Our Salvation, Prove

By / Mar 14

Editor’s Note: To encourage those considering a call to ministry, Midwestern Seminary is giving away an e-book copy of Christ Our All: Poems for the Christian Pilgrim by Charles Spurgeon during the month of March. Download your copy today and be encouraged by the reflections of a faithful minister as you follow the call of Christ.

Prayer: Captain of Our Salvation, Prove[1]

Captain of our salvation, prove
The greatness of thy saving love;
Teach thou this wayward heart to know
What made thee love poor sinners so.

Was it for aught that we had done
For thee, that thy great pity came?
Or that because our helpless state
Bespoke the rebel sinner[’]s fate?

Was it for love we bore thy name
That made thee bear the cross and shame?
Or that because our sins were deep
That made thy loving heart to weep?

Lord, did our ruin bring thee down
And make thee leave thy royal crown?
To wander here, endure the grave
Our sinful souls to buy and save?

Did our condition grieve thy heart
And bring thee down to bear our smart?
Or did thy loving heart desire
To save us from eternal fire?

If such great love as this was thine
To us a mass of guilt and sin,
Let me adore thy sovereign grace;
Save me, and let me see thy face.

For further reflection: 1 Timothy 1:15–16

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[1] This poem was written by Charles Spurgeon and compiled by Geoffrey Chang in Christ Our All: Poems for the Christian Pilgrim (Brentwood, TN: B&H Academic, 2024), 23. It is reproduced at For the Church by permission of B&H Academic.



The Agents of Mission

By / Mar 12

From the beginning of history, God has worked through agents to carry out His mission. Patrick Schreiner, Associate Professor of New Testament and Biblical Theology at Midwestern Seminary, writes, “[God] enacts His mission and furthers His mission specifically through His people.”[1]

First, God created Adam and Eve as His image bearers on earth. God blessed them and commissioned them “to reflect, resemble, and represent his greatness and glory on a global scale.”[2] Later, God chose Abraham, sent him from his own country, and promised to bless the nations through him (Gen. 12:1–3; 17:4–5; 22:18). The Old Testament records how God deputized and sent many other emissaries on His behalf, people like Moses, David, and Elijah. In fact, God sent the entire people of Israel to fulfill His plan.

Israel’s God-given mission was to be a kingdom of priests and a light to the nations (Ex. 19:6; Isa. 49:6). Their mission was to display the joy and peace of living in obedience to God, and in the process, to draw the nations to worship the true and living God. Jason DeRouchie, Research Professor of Old Testament and Biblical Theology at Midwestern Seminary, writes that Israel’s mission “to the nations was centripetal,” which involved “calling others to ‘come and see.’”[3]

While Israel did not have a commission to “go” to the nations in the same way that the Church has the Great Commission, the most fervent lovers of God in the Old Testament repeatedly expressed their dissatisfaction with provincially limited praise and, therefore, longed for all nations to glorify God. For example, Psalm 67:3–4 says, “Let the peoples praise You, O God; Let all the peoples praise You. Let the nations be glad and sing for joy.” God affirms that He will fulfill their longing. In Psalm 46:10, God promises, “I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” And yet, for generations, the people of Israel turned away from God and failed to fulfill their intended mission.[4]

When the fullness of time came, God sent His Son and Spirit as the ultimate agents of mission. Andreas Köstenberger writes, “The Lord of the Scriptures is a missionary God who not only reached out and gathers the lost but also sends His servants, and particularly His beloved Son, to achieve His gracious saving purposes.”[5] The incarnation, life, death, resurrection, ascension, and enthronement of Jesus and the arrival of the Spirit form the centerpiece of history and mark the climactic events in God’s mission.

The Son’s Mission

Where other agents failed to perfectly reflect, resemble, and represent God, Jesus succeeded. Jesus fulfilled His mission by perfectly glorifying His heavenly Father through His words and works (John 17:4–5). In the greatest display of love in history, Jesus voluntarily sacrificed His life on the cross, securing redemption for all who trust in Him. Then God raised Him up from the dead and exalted Him (Acts 2:32–33; Rom. 1:4).

After His resurrection and before His ascension, Jesus said to His disciples, “As the Father has sent Me, I also send you” (John 20:21). Jesus commissioned His disciples to be agents of His mission. He said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to follow all that I commanded you; and behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matt. 28:18–20).[6]

Yet Jesus instructed His disciples to wait for the Holy Spirit. He said, “I am sending the promise of My Father upon you; but you are to stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high” (Luke 24:49). Jesus said that when the Holy Spirit comes, “He will glorify Me” (John 16:14). Just as Jesus’s mission was to exalt the Father, the Holy Spirit’s mission is to exalt Jesus.

The Spirit’s Mission

Ten days after Christ’s ascension, God sent the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:1–4). Immediately, the Spirit went to work. He empowered the small band of believers in Jerusalem to testify to the death and resurrection of Jesus to people from all over the world (Acts 2:5–36).[7] As this band of believers quickly grew in number, they faced persecution. The believers started to spread out from Jerusalem as agents of mission, filled with the Spirit of mission, and began to “turn the world upside down” (Acts 17:6 KJV).[8]

The Spirit first saves people, then gathers His people, and then sends His people.[9] To this day, the Spirit is choosing a people for His own possession and empowering them to proclaim the excellencies of Christ (1 Pet. 2:9). Those whom the Spirit unites to the eternal Son through faith, the Father adopts as His children.[10] The three Persons of the Godhead are involved in salvation because it is a Trinitarian phenomenon. God fills His children with the Holy Spirit of Jesus, who empowers them to cry out, “Abba, Father” (Rom. 8:15). The Spirit unites the children of God to one another as brothers and sisters. The family of God, the Church, is a new community in the Spirit.

The Church’s Mission

The Baptist Faith and Message 2000 provides a definition for church. Section IV says, “A New Testament church of the Lord Jesus Christ is an autonomous local congregation of baptized believers, associated by covenant in the faith and fellowship of the gospel; observing the two ordinances of Christ, governed by His laws, exercising the gifts, rights, and privileges invested in them by His Word, and seeking to extend the gospel to the ends of the earth.”[11] It is significant that this definition includes extending the gospel to the ends of the earth as one of the church’s primary duties.[12]

Today, the Church is God’s agent of mission in the world.[13] The Spirit leads the Church to continue His mission of exalting Christ.[14] According to the pattern in Acts 13:2–4, the Holy Spirit, in response to the prayers of the Church, sets apart and sends out missionaries. The Church prays for them, ordains them, and dispatches them. Missionaries remain connected to their sending church, but they serve as envoys where no church exists.[15]

Missionaries are not merely concerned with evangelizing lost people, but also with bringing the gospel to and discipling unreached and unengaged people groups.[16]  The difference between “lost” and “unreached” is a matter of access to the gospel. Paul embodies the heart of a missionary when he says, “My aim is to preach the gospel where Christ has not been named” (Rom. 15:20). The core missionary task is to enter new contexts, preach the gospel, make disciples, establish churches, train leaders, and entrust the church to the local believers. In this way, God blesses the nations with the gospel through the Church.

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[1] Patrick Schreiner, The Mission of the Triune God (Wheaton: Crossway, 2022), 154.

[2] Jason DeRouchie, “By the Waters of Babylon: Global Missions from Genesis to Revelation,” Midwestern Journal of Theology 20, no. 2 (Fall 2021): 7.

[3] DeRouchie, “By the Waters of Babylon,” 12.

[4] Israel came the closest to fulfilling their mission of being a “come and see” people during the prosperous reign of Solomon. First Kings 10:24 says, “All the earth was seeking the presence of Solomon.” Yet even Solomon turned away from the LORD, failed in his mission, and left a glaring hole that only the true Messiah could fill.

[5] Andreas Köstenberger, Salvation to the Ends of the Earth: A Biblical Theology of Mission, New Studies in Biblical Theology 53 (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2020), 261.

[6] The old canard that claims that the word ‘go’ (poreuthentes) is a participle that should be translated “as you are going” is wrong. This oft-repeated falsehood undercuts the imperatival force for Christians to move across boundaries. Making disciples of all nations simply is not possible unless some people “go” to the nations. Additionally, most Greek and New Testament scholars maintain that the word “go” is a command. For example, Daniel Wallace, Senior Research Professor of New Testament Studies at Dallas Theological Seminary, identifies poreuthentes in this context as a particle of “attendant circumstance,” which means that the participle takes on the mood of the verb. In this case, the word “make disciples” (matheteusate) is a command, which means the participle should also be translated as a command. Daniel Wallace, Greek Grammar beyond the Basics: An Exegetical Syntax of the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1996), 640–45.

[7] Patrick Schreiner writes, “The Spirit compels boldness in speaking of Jesus. The Spirit is also always pointing back to the work of Jesus. [His] mission is always to exalt Christ.” Schreiner, The Mission of the Triune God, 152.

[8] “The Spirit is about mission, [and] the mission is to save, recreate, and reconcile a new people.” Schreiner, The Mission of the Triune God, 67.

[9] Schreiner argues that the book of Acts presents the Spirit from three perspectives, soteriological, ecclesiological, and missiological. Schreiner, The Mission of the Triune God, 67.

[10] Adoption as a motif for entrance into God’s family is unique to Paul in the NT (Rom. 8:15; 8:23; 9:4; Gal. 4:5; Eph. 1:4). John emphasizes new birth to describe a believer’s entrance into the family of God (John 1:12; 3:16; 1 John 3:1–4). John marvels at God’s work, saying, “See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are” (1 John 3:1).

[11] The Baptist Faith and Message 2000, section IV. Available at https://bfm.sbc.net/ bfm2000/#vi.

[12] The Foundations document of the IMB elaborates on the BF&M 2000 by providing guidelines for church planting, leadership training, and statistical reporting. It also discusses 12 characteristics of a healthy church. Foundations, v. 4, IMB, 78–83. Accessed December 1, 2022.

[13] For a fuller discussion of the church and mission, see Robin Dale Hadaway, A Survey of World Missions (Nashville: B&H Academic, 2020) 53–54.

[14] “We believe God uses the local church to disciple believers, to discern their giftings and callings, to train potential cross-cultural workers in the basics of Christian evangelism and discipleship, to assess their readiness for service, and to send them out to the nations (Ephesians 3:10).” Foundations, 19.

[15] The missionary task is a group assignment. The picture of a lone missionary heroically pioneering new regions is unbiblical. Except in rare cases, Paul, the prototypical missionary, did not work alone. In his letters, Paul identifies well over 70 men and women as his ministry associates, and specifically calls many of them “coworkers.”

[16] The Foundations document clarifies the concept of unreached. It says, “Unreached peoples and places are those among whom Christ is largely unknown and the church is relatively insufficient to make Christ known in its broader population without outside help.” Foundations, 88.



Pastoral Ministry and Christian Progress

By / Mar 5

Our Struggle with Progress

I’m coming up on two years in pastoral ministry. Although I’ve not spent much time in pastoral ministry, I’ve come to realize something—there is importance in progress. Waiting patiently for God to do His work in His people is more important than seeing someone change overnight. Looking for a quick fix will not produce the obedience we desire in our sheep. Rather, we must trust the Lord’s plan of lifelong discipleship, knowing that He will produce obedience in the lives of our sheep.

Let me give some examples of situations we may encounter in our churches. You meet with a few men each week to discuss Scripture. Every week, the men seem to get off track as they love to tell stories about their life that have nothing to do with this passage, or they riff off one word they read. They just can’t seem to come to focus on the passage and attempt to understand what the passage means to the original audience, how Christ is connected to the passage, and what we must do in light of these things.

Perhaps week by week you meet with the same guy struggling to let go of his sin. You’re unsure if he even comprehends the severity of his sin. After months, there seems to be some progress, but you wish he’d just be done with that sin by now. If only he could defeat it.

Someone riddled with anxiety comes to your office every few months to talk. Last month they were looking for counsel because some conspiracy theory post on social media got them going. This time they are looking for counsel because they fear a fellow church member is avoiding them even though there is no evidence for this. There’s just always something wrong for this one.

These situations can cause some doubts within the pastor. Doubts come about whether your people are listening to you or not. Sometimes, you may even begin to doubt a church member’s salvation. It feels like they just don’t understand the hope we have in Christ. Maybe you begin to doubt your ability to teach or to counsel. In the end, it just doesn’t feel like these people are making any progress in the faith.

Scriptural Progress

If you’re feeling like Moses leading the Israelites in the desert, then you probably know what I’m talking about. It’s here that I’d like to remind you that a pastor practices patience because a pastor recognizes that progress is the goal of ministry. Hear these words from Paul: “I am sure of this, that he who started a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus” (Phil. 1:6). Paul understood that the gospel work in our hearts is completed at Christ’s return. We too should expect that our people’s progress will not be complete until His return.

The book of 1 John is helpful for us to understand how God is working in us. 1 John 1:5–6 can be summed up by saying that God is pure light and no darkness dwells in Him; therefore, anyone who claims they have fellowship with God but walks in darkness does not walk with God. We are to understand that sin is darkness and that by participating in sin we walk in darkness. Our problem of sin causes us to remain in darkness; however, God has provided a way. Through Jesus, we are taken from the realm of darkness and into God’s glorious light. Living in the light, then, is exposing ourselves to God’s light, His purity, and His holiness. That is why 1 John 1:9 gives us the hope that by the confession of our sin—that is, the exposure of our sin—we are forgiven by the faithful and righteous God.

We can say this then, that progress in our spiritual lives is exposing ourselves to God’s light which reveals our darkness. This is our main concern when seeking the progress of the saints. Are they being made more like Christ over time? Some days will be better than others, but do they look more like Christ this year over last year? By God’s grace and work, they should. Our exposure to the knowledge of the beauty and radiance of God will produce changes in our minds that extend to changes in our hearts and work their way out through our hands. The exposure of our sin to the glory of God fuels us to grow and be more like Christ in our knowledge, affections, and actions.

Making Progress with Progress

Okay, so the goal is making progress by being more like Christ. Got it. But what does that have to do with people who are missing the point in Bible study, or that guy still struggling with that one sin, or that person who seems led by fear more than faith? Well, change takes a while. The very fact that we won’t be complete until we are in the presence of the come-again Christ is evidence that we will be consistently changing throughout our life. Change takes time.

Pastors, practice patience with your flock. You didn’t come to the place you are quickly, but the Lord had to mold you and make you into a qualified man over time. Patiently shepherd the flock for their long-term growth, not short-term. For the men that don’t get the main point of the text, be patient with them and help them see how to find it. Show them how to faithfully apply Christ to those texts. Expose them to the glory of God’s inexhaustible light in Christ through the study of Scripture. For the guy still struggling with that one sin, teach him of the delight and satisfaction found in Christ alone. Help him get his eyes focused on Christ and prepare for when distractions would call his attention away from Christ. For the person led by fear, call them to trust the Lord in a way that recognizes their fear but doesn’t allow them to continue living in it. And when a new fear arises, do the same thing again.

Eventually, those in Christ will produce fruit. Fruit production isn’t quick. The seed takes time to take root, sprout, and then grow into a fruit-bearing tree. Then we must wait for the fruit to be ready to eat. In a similar way, when we push for progress instead of complete change in a person, we are allowing the fruit to grow with best results. If we demand someone to produce fruit upon our first talking to them, then the truth we speak may not take root in them. Plant the truth that needs to be said, and let it take root in their mind, sprout in their heart, and then produce fruit from their hands. Gospel change looks to the process of being conformed to the truth, not forced into a mold. Let us be patient and witness the life-changing work of God. Let us watch as God does His work and brings His people to completion.



The Shadow of the Son

By / Mar 3

Life begins with light.

“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light. And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day” (Gen. 1:1–5).

Scripture’s central message is God’s salvation of humankind through the life, death, and resurrection of His Son. Scripture unveils this dazzling mystery by its unfolding proclamation of who God is and what He does. And the first of His works that it records is this: He created light.

If God gave us His Word to reveal Himself and to guide us to Him for eternal life, then what does He show us about Himself by starting off the story telling us that He created light?

He Is Supremely Powerful.

Light is the first created thing, and it obeys God immediately. In fact, its obedience is inseparable from its coming into existence. When God commands light to be, it does.

Existence follows His command. His words give reality and being, bringing to life what did not previously exist. No one else has this power.

Light’s obedience to God’s command reveals the magnitude of His authority. His command brings effect. At His command, light comes to be at a speed of 186,000 miles per second. In the first instant of history, God creates, and what He creates obeys Him, magnificently displaying His power, deity, and indisputable worthiness of all the obedience and honor in the universe.

He Marks the Bounds of History.

It’s been said that the first three days of God’s creative work could be broadly described as His creating spaces, while the last few days could be broadly described as His filling those spaces.[1]

In His first act of creation, God creates the space for time by creating light. By light’s presence and absence—day and night—He separates time from time and marks the space which history has filled, and will fill, from the first day to the last. Such governance reveals that He is eternal. Light and dark, the rising and setting of the sun, the changing of days, the passage of time—all depend on His existence before them.

He Intends to Be Known by His Creatures.

Light reveals. By it, we see everything else that God made. Moreover, many of the things that God made depend on light for their life: “plants yielding seed” and “trees bearing fruit” and the array of living creatures who depend on these for food.[2]

God’s Word says, “His invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made” (Rom. 1:20).

It is impossible for the human eye to see without light. The fact that light existed before any human eye shows God’s desire to be known. He wanted to be perceived by His image-bearers in the things that He would make. From the instant God breathed life into Adam and the man’s eyes opened upon the trees of the garden and the livestock of the fields, he was perceiving the eternal power of the One who made them all.

He Is the True Light.

As a created thing, light reveals God’s attributes. Opening the story of history as the first of God’s creations, it shines a spotlight on the One whom the whole story is about.

Jesus.

The One who brought all creation into existence and “upholds the universe by the word of His power.”[3]

The One who existed before all time.[4]

The One who reveals every one of God’s attributes, for He is God Himself, “the image of the invisible God” and “the exact imprint of His nature.”[5]

In becoming man, this Light obeyed God, His Father, perfectly.

This Light is the first and last, the center and border of history, who reigned before the beginning and whose glory will replace lamp and sun on the final Day, dissolving night and dark.[6]

This Light revealed the fullness of God’s eternal power and divine attributes in His sinless life, sacrificial death, and glorious resurrection for the salvation of sinners.

If you see Him, you see God.[7]

Created light—in all it reveals—is but a shadow of the Son.

Grace Upon Grace

“The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God….from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace” (John 1:9–12, 16). 

By creating light on the first day, God revealed His glory in multi-faceted brilliance to every atom of creation. His intention to be seen is good news. For, as the other five days of creation display in full color, every good thing comes from Him. If anything in creation is good, how much better must its source be? How much more sublime to know Him?

Because He is so good, He cannot accept our sin. Because He is so good, He gave His Son to atone for our sin. Though we rebelled against Him, He shone in our darkness, and into our very hearts gives “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”[8]

May we open our eyes to this Light and live.

Author’s note: I am thankful for the women of Liberty Baptist Church with whom I first enjoyed these reflections during our spring 2024 discipleship group.

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[1] See Jen Wilkin, “Week Three: Six Days and a Rest,” God of Creation: A Study of Genesis 1–11 (Brentwood, TN: Lifeway Press, 2017). Wilkin addresses this point in the week 3 teaching video (www.lifeway.com/godofcreation). I also heard this observation from others before I encountered it in Wilkin’s study.

[2] Gen. 1:11–12, 24–30.

[3] Heb. 1:3; cf. Col. 1:16.

[4] Jude 25.

[5] Col. 1:15; Heb. 1:3.

[6] Rev. 22:5, 13.

[7] John 14:9.

[8] 2 Cor. 4:6.



Leading a Church Without Losing Your Soul

By / Feb 27

A few years into ministry, I read these words from a famous pastor: “I had become a full-time minister and a part-time Christian.”

Even as a twenty-something still fresh with the excitement of my first pastoral assignment, I could relate.

Prior to ministry, you imagine that the inertia of pastoral life will drive you joyfully into deep communion with Jesus. But it doesn’t take long to realize how wrong that idealism is. 

Hebrews 2:1 tells us, “We must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.” Every Christian faces the temptation and inclination to drift.

Even—or perhaps, especially—pastors. 

Do you mainly use Scripture for preparing studies or providing answers for other people? Is prayer a routine way to open or close meetings? Are memories of passionate pursuit of Christ in the distant past? Is the sin of others more disappointing than your own sin? Do you feel like a full-time pastor but a part-time Christian? 

Questions like these can help diagnose whether your soul is adrift. 

The good news is that it’s possible to plant a church or lead a dynamic ministry without losing your soul. But it will take intentional focus and good habits. 

Now, more than 20 years into pastoral leadership, I’m more committed than ever to not losing my soul. Below are some strategies to help any pastor who wants to keep his soul.

  1. Connect Regularly with God | Before you were a pastor, you were a Christian. Something about Jesus electrified you. You’d joyfully linger in His presence, amazed by His grace. This relationship you had with God made you want to serve Him even more. So keep cultivating your relationship with God—not only to be a good pastor, but to be a joyful Christian.
  2. Prioritize Solitude | My favorite definition of solitude is from Cal Newport: “time spent free from the input of other minds.” In other words, if you’re alone but listening to a podcast, it’s not solitude. Solitude gives you space to relax in God’s presence and tune your heart to His grace.
  3. Rigorously Practice Weekly Sabbath | The seasons where I’ve sensed the beginning of burnout or cynicism have one thing in common: a failure of practicing sabbath. Take one day a week where you rest to pray, play, and intentionally lay down any striving or performance.
  4. Spend Time with Friends | In ministry, all your circles overlap. Your workplace, faith community, and friends frequently end up involving the same people. Do what you can to cultivate friendships with people who don’t need you as their pastor. It will be freeing to your soul.
  5. Identify Your Personal Warning Signs and Invite Input | When the dashboard warning lights of life ding, what shows up? Though each of us is different, those who are close to us can see our warning signs. So be on the lookout for these signs of danger, and give trusted people permission to point out areas of concern.
  6. Invest in Counseling | Life and leadership are filled with limits, losses, and emotional wear-and-tear. Having an experienced counselor with some distance from your ministry can help you process these challenges in a healthy way.
  7. Use Every Minute of Vacation | Just like you need a weekly sabbath from ministry, you need some annual breaks and vacation. It’s not lazy to use the time you are given to rest and recalibrate.
  8. Develop Healthy Pressure Release Valves | The pressure of life will come out one way or another, so intentionally decide for it to come out in good ways. Hobbies, time with friends, and exercise are healthy examples of release valves.
  9. Create Sweet Personal and Family Practices for Christmas and Easter | Every Good Friday, I go with my family to a specific park to read the passion story and pray together. On a weekend of intense public ministry, it reminds me that I’m a Christian first.
  10. Don’t Let Other People Decide What Is an “Emergency” | Many pastors exhaust themselves allowing everyone else to control their time and energy. But just because it’s an emergency to somebody else doesn’t mean it should be to you.
  11. Regularly Practice Retreat Days | Every few months, set aside a day or half-day to zoom out, take inventory on your life and ministry, and invest in your soul. These days provide an opportunity to break the cycle of reacting and, instead, lead yourself intentionally.
  12. Create a Folder of Ministry Implosion Stories | Sadly, many pastors fall. Stories of sin and scandal abound. When these stories happen, take note. When the fallen pastor writes a letter of resignation or an elder board issues a statement, copy and paste it into a file on your computer. Read these every year as a way to warn yourself of the dangers of losing your soul.
  13. Develop a Plan for Intentional Sabbaticals | Sabbaticals are a long-held best-practice for long-term sustainable ministry. Done well, sabbaticals cultivate health for you, your family, and your church.
  14. Structure Your Week with Margin | You can’t keep your soul if you constantly drive your engine at the red-line limit. Healthy pastors must build weekly rhythms and schedule that contain margin so that when inevitable surprises and crises come, they can handle them.
  15. Put “Developing Leaders” on Your Job Description | To build a church ministry that isn’t resting on your shoulders alone, you must develop and empower other leaders. As Jethro rebuked Moses, “You and the people with you will certainly wear yourselves out, for the thing is too heavy for you. You are not able to do it alone” (Exod. 18:18). Pouring into leaders is essential for sustainable ministry.

You don’t have to lose your soul. Fight to keep it. It will be worth it.



Praying Psalm 62 with Charles Spurgeon

By / Feb 25

“If God is real, I’m sure He’s too busy to care about the details of my life.” A friend said this to me years ago with exasperation and resignation in his voice. Perhaps you’ve heard some version of this yourself. Maybe you’ve even heard it inside the church. “You should only pray for really big things, like God’s glory among the nations—don’t pray for little things like a good parking spot.”

These statements reflect a deeper question: Can we really approach God with confidence? Can we actually bring Him our smallest, most earthly requests? There’s a Psalm just for these questions, and the 19th-century preacher Charles Spurgeon helps us discover its riches.

How to Pray from the Heart

There are many Psalms that invite us to bring ourselves honestly and completely before God. But in my opinion, Psalm 62 is the most powerful of them all.

David opens his song with a word of praise, as he often does: “Truly my soul finds rest in God; my salvation comes from him” (v. 1, NIV). As soon as he praises God like this, though, David reaches the purpose of his prayer. “How long will you assault me? Would all of you throw me down—this leaning wall, this tottering fence?” (v. 3).

What a vibrant illustration of David’s situation. His enemies are after him. They’re cursing him and intending to knock him down from his royal position. He feels like a leaning wall, a broken-down fence. At any moment, he could come collapsing down.

No doubt, you’ve felt like this before. You know what it’s like to feel overwhelmed with life. Work is too much, people are demanding, and someone seems out to get you. It feels like the weight of the world is on your shoulders, and you’re not sure if anyone can help you. Where do we go with all this pressure and fear?

David knows he can approach God with all this. It’s not too much for God. David can come directly to the Lord of Hosts with his immediate needs and urgent requests. He continues:

“Yes, my soul, find rest in God;

my hope comes from him.

Trust in him at all times, you people;

pour out your hearts to him,

for God is our refuge” (v. 8, emphasis added).

Here, the king vacillates between preaching to his own heart and calling Israel to trust in the Lord. “Rest in God!” he tells his own soul. “Trust in him at all times, you people!” he adds. And he speaks to us—all of us in our own desperate situations wondering if we can bring our grandest and most insignificant requests to an almighty God. David says, “Pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge.” Centuries after David, Jeremiah picks up his phrase, writing, “Pour out your hearts like water in the presence of the Lord,” in calling Israel to repentance in Lamentations 2:19.

Now, this is a beautiful phrase: Pour out your hearts to God. It’s not hard to understand, but if we can fully internalize its powerful invitation, it will truly transform our prayer lives. And there’s a sure guide to help us there.

Charles Spurgeon on True Prayer

In his majestic, three-volume Treasury of David, Charles Spurgeon meditates on this phrase for no small amount of time. What does it mean to pour out our hearts? And how can we know we can do this? Spurgeon writes:

You to whom his love is revealed, reveal yourselves to him. His heart is set on you, lay bare your hearts to him. Turn the vessel of your soul upside down in his secret presence, and let your inmost thoughts, desires, sorrows, and sins be poured out like water. Hide nothing from him, for you can hide nothing. To the Lord, unburden your soul… To keep our griefs to ourselves is to hoard up wretchedness. The stream will swell and rage if you dam it up; give it a clear course, and it leaps along and creates no alarm.[1]

The Psalms are God’s way of saying, “Don’t make sure you sanitize your prayers.” You can come to God just as you are. Your prayers can’t be too honest for God; He knows what’s going on in your heart already.

Give the Lord your everything; He can handle it. We don’t have to hold it all together and clean ourselves up. We don’t have to do this life in our own strength. God wants to give us His joy, peace, and strength. And He desires to pour these gifts into us through prayer. Our job is to empty ourselves first, so that we might have ample room to receive them.

But why do the psalmist and prophet call us to pour out our hearts like water? Spurgeon reflects:

Pour [your heart] out as water. Not as milk, whose color remains. Not as wine, whose savor remains. Not as honey, whose taste remains. But as water, of which, when it is poured out, nothing remains. So let sin be poured out of the heart, that no color of it may remain in external marks, no savor in our words, no taste in our affections.[2]

David and Jeremiah (and Spurgeon) want to show us something of the nature of our prayers. Rather than a slow, careful reciting of words, our prayers can be the natural, unfiltered overflow of our hearts and minds. When we are bursting at the seams with the worries and demands of this life, God has given us a release valve. When we are full, we can pour out.

We’re not just pouring out prayers though; we’re pouring out our very hearts. Our hearts can remain largely hidden from us. We barely understand why we do what we do and why certain things just poured out of our mouths. Prayer is a way of discovering our own hearts. As we give our hearts to God in prayer, we are giving Him the core and essence of our lives. We are giving ourselves completely to Him. Spurgeon adds:

If you fear lest there remain anything in your heart not poured forth, bring the whole heart, and cast it before the eyes of the Lord, and sacrifice it to him, that he may create a new heart in thee.[3]

This is the image God has chosen to give us for our praying lives. Just pour it out. Let it flow. Don’t hold back. Spills and messes will happen, and there will be days when you feel like a puddle on the floor. But God’s welcome is simple: Pour out your heart.

God Pours Out, Too

Beautifully, there’s another side to this. When we pour out, God pours out on us, too. God’s blessing also flows like water. He is the God of abundance and overflow. As the self-existent source and replenisher of life, our Father pours out His own goodness and peace, even as we pour out our hearts like water before Him.

Sound too good to be true? Romans 5:5 promises, “God’s love has been poured out into our hearts by his Holy Spirit.”

God’s blessing being poured into us happens simultaneously to our pouring out our hearts in His presence. The weak pouring out anxiousness, confusion, and need, and the strong pouring out love, strength, and blessing in response—all like water.

Our hearts were made to be poured out. Your ever-loving Father waits for you to bring all your rants and ramblings to Him. Spurgeon concludes,

Sympathy we need, and if we unload our hearts at Jesus’ feet, we shall obtain a sympathy as practical as it is sincere, as consolatory as it is ennobling.[4]

This, Spurgeon knew, is the essence of prayer: Pour out your heart to God, and He will pour His joy, strength, and love back into you. Amen and amen.

__________

[1] Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David: Volume 2, 51.

[2] Spurgeon, 58.

[3] Spurgeon, 58.

[4] Spurgeon, 58.

Editor’s note: For more encouragement in prayer, see Jeremy Linneman’s forthcoming book Pour Out Your Heart: Discovering Joy, Strength, and Intimacy with God through Prayer, available this March from B&H Publishing.



The Strategic Value of Pastoral Hospitality

By / Feb 21

Editor’s note: This article is the final entry of a four-part series. Access the full series here.

In this final entry in this series, I wish to note the strategic value of pastoral hospitality for the contemporary local church. I suggest that the pastoral ministry of hospitality has excellent potential for improving the local church’s health. My argument here rests on my analysis of New Testament passages in the previous post and my personal experience as a pastor and seminary professor. I have served as the teaching pastor at The Master’s Community Church (SBC) for 25 years. I have taught New Testament and Greek at Midwestern Seminary for nearly a decade, serving as Dean of Graduate Studies for five years. From my vantage point, pastoral hospitality is strategic for enhancing the local church’s health for at least three reasons.

Pastoral Hospitality to the Needy Models God’s Benevolence and Defends the Gospel

Hospitality is love for strangers and outsiders, of whom the contemporary world is not short on supply. Wars and family crises have resulted in no small increase in the number of refugees and displaced children. A healthy local church knows that the world needs to see us caring for the vulnerable. It is hard to imagine a more at-risk demographic than children in the foster care system, many of whom await adoption. I know of no more difficult ministry. I likewise know of no ministry that more acutely objectifies God’s care for the needy and shuts the mouths of those who accuse the Church of selfishness and hypocrisy.

But orphans are not the only demographic the pastor might host. God is drawing many refugees in the United States to Himself, and pastors have the unique position to disciple and train them for church planting. One of the most invigorating ministries my church and Midwestern Seminary students have engaged in over the last three years has been with Afghan refugees who have been placed in Kansas City. We have cooperated to serve these families in job placement, language learning, medical assistance, driving lessons, and the gospel. Some of the families were believers when they arrived. I have had the great joy of hosting them and being in their homes for ministry planning and leadership development.

Pastoral Hospitality Cultivates Fellowship and Leadership Development

One metric for gauging a local church’s health is how diverse demographics in the church interact with one another. When my wife and I host, I try to gather people who are not naturally connected. I invite new attendees or church members to join us and include more seasoned members in the invitation. If we are hosting students, I ask non-students, even retirees, to join us as well. Pastoral hospitality creates a natural structure for Paul’s directive that older believers should teach younger ones and younger ones should learn from those more mature in the faith (Titus 2:1–5). I hope never to forget when I was hosting an age-diverse small group and overheard an older couple offer to rent a large home and property at a very reduced price to a younger couple so the young couple could leave their small apartment and begin doing foster care ministry, or when a retiree shared over brunch how a younger couple could participate in the children’s ministry of our church.

Pastoral hospitality also provides a relational environment to develop leaders for ministry. This was true for me. A pastor asked my wife and me to join him and his wife for dinner one cold January evening in 1997. While I was employed as an elementary teacher in a local school, my evenings and weekends were busy with church ministry, leading a small group and a Sunday School class. We had just sat down to dinner when the pastor asked if I had ever sensed a call to pastoral ministry. When we got up to leave, my life had changed. I have used that same practice of asking deeper-level, calling kinds of questions while my wife and I host potential leaders and students, casting vision for ministry as the conversation unfolds.

Pastoral Hospitality Allows the Pastor to Model Christian Family Life and Family Worship

Authenticity is a buzzword in contemporary ministry. Church health is displayed by gospel authenticity in relationships. When pastors are hospitable, people see God’s glory in the everyday stuff of our lives. If people are in my home long enough, usually not very long, they will see foibles and failures and hear apologies. At some point, they will see a husband loving his wife like Christ does the Church and a wife submitting to her husband as the Church does to Christ. They will see parents training their children in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. They will hear issues of the day discussed from a Christian worldview.

As we serve dessert, guests will be invited to join us as we read Scripture, pray, and sing. I have found that most men in my church and students in my classes do not learn how to lead family worship by reading books about it but by seeing me lead my family as we enjoy brownie sundaes and coffee. When meeting with that man individually after having his family in my home, I can follow up and fill in the gaps.

Pastoral Hospitality as Preventive Medicine

People will often ask me, “How’s your church?” After 25 years of serving in the same congregation, one would think that I could have a better answer. “I hope things are going well…” I often quip. Truth is, even the most hospitable and relational pastor knows only a portion of what God is doing in his flock. And those who have been in ministry for a season or two know how rapidly a church can change. God allows cancer, sin, economic pressures, and a host of other situations upon His people, and pastors are called to guide God’s people through them. Pastoral hospitality deepens relational roots so that when storms come upon the flock, the needy and vulnerable sheep will have every reason to heed the voice of their undershepherds. The devil prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking to devour weak sheep (1 Pet. 5:8). Pastoral hospitality establishes relational structures that prevent the devil from succeeding.



The Pastor As Host

By / Feb 20

Editor’s note: This article is part three of a four-part series. Access the full series here.

I suggested in the first entry in this series that a covenantal framework can be identified in the Lord’s hospitality in Exodus 24. Though Jesus’s hospitality to the eleven in John 21 does not have the same covenantal framework, in both passages, God effectively hosts a select figure to train him for ministry leadership: Moses for Israel and Peter for the apostles.

In the second entry, I noted that hospitality is a ministry of all kinds of leaders in Scripture. And they undertake this ministry with urgency. Abraham (Gen. 19), David (2 Sam. 9), and the public official Publius of Malta (Acts 28:1–10) extend hospitality with respect to their leadership positions.

In this third entry, I want to explore Paul’s statement that pastors must be hospitable. In the local church, pastoral hospitality reflects God’s care for the needy and establishes an environment for supplying and training ministry leaders. The qualifications for pastoral leadership express a man’s relational aptitude for leading a local church. Whether we consider the list Paul writes in 1 Timothy 3:1–7 or Titus 1:5–9, each quality more or less has in view a man’s ability to reflect God’s character as he relates with people inside and outside the church.

The pastor must reflect God in his closest relationships. He must husband his wife (1 Tim. 3:2; Titus 1:6a) and manage his household well (1 Tim. 3:4–5; Titus 1:6b). The pastor must also display God’s character in the more extended relationships of his life. He must be hospitable, a lover of strangers and outsiders (1 Tim. 3:2; Titus 1:8).

When studying the pastoral qualifications listed in 1 Timothy 3:1–7 or Titus 1:5–9, we must recognize two ways they might become fodder for eisegesis. First, we must remember that no one pastoral qualification functions in isolation. Relational aptitude functions as the hub into which these qualities fit as spokes. In aggregate, these features of a man’s life position him to reflect God as he leads the church. Second, the lists of qualifications should not be isolated from Paul’s flow of thought in 1 Timothy and Titus. These qualifications for pastors contribute to Paul’s broader portrait of beliefs and behaviors the church must embrace in light of Jesus’s death, resurrection, ascension, and promised return. These qualifications signify the pastor’s character in relation to God and the ministry of the new covenant.

Having identified the conceptual framework of these pastoral qualifications and pitfalls to avoid when interpreting them, we can consider Paul’s statement that the pastor must be hospitable. I identify two reasons why Paul lists hospitality as a qualification for pastoral ministry.

Hospitality Enacts God’s Care to the Needy

In Titus, Paul repeatedly notes the importance of good works. The opponents of the gospel lack good works (1:16). Titus is to be an example of good works (2:7). Believers are to reflect their redemption by being eager to do good works (2:14), ready to do good works in the public sphere as they relate to governing authorities (3:1). Believers are to be careful to devote themselves to good works (3:8). Paul concludes the letter saying, “Let our people learn to devote themselves to good works for pressing needs, so that they will not be unfruitful” (Titus 3:14, CSB).

The good works Paul has in mind would doubtless include caring for one’s own needy family, especially widows (1 Tim. 5:3–16). If a believing widow has no family and finds herself without the means for independent living, to whom might she look for assistance? A pastor’s hospitality and leadership would prove invaluable. Paul’s concern in 1 Timothy 5:3–16 that widows be taken care of reflects God’s demand that His people care for the widow and orphan, stated throughout the Old Testament (e.g., Deut. 24:10–22; Ps. 68:4–6; Jer. 7:3–8) and in James 1:27.

Hospitality is Necessary for Multiplying Ministry Leadership

Hospitality in the local church features prominently in 2 and 3 John. Believers show their faith by welcoming into their homes brothers and sisters who confess Christ, to refresh them and share in their ministries (2 John 9–11; 3 John 5–8). In 3 John 9–10, John condemns Diotrephes for refusing to be hospitable and forbidding believers to host ministers as they travel. Pastors who welcome those who go out to spread the gospel of Jesus’s death and resurrection have the dual effect of meeting the immediate needs of those ministers and modeling hospitality for the church. It may be this kind of ministry that Jesus has in view when He describes hospitality as the fulcrum of judgment in the analogy of the sheep and the goats (Matt. 25:31–46).

I noted that pastoral hospitality should not be understood in isolation from Paul’s broader portrait of ministry in the Pastoral Epistles. One pastoral task Paul notes repeatedly is training leaders who will join in and carry out new covenant ministry. Timothy is to labor in training those who will lead the church (1 Tim. 4:11–16). He is to deal with church elders justly, patiently affirming them to the pastoral office (1 Tim. 5:17–22). Paul tells Timothy in 2 Timothy 2:2, “What you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, commit to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.” One unique feature of pastoral hospitality is that it provides a relational atmosphere for training those who will join in ministry leadership. Pastoral hospitality thus reflects the Lord’s hospitality to Moses and Israel’s leaders in Exodus 24 and Jesus’s hospitality to Peter and the disciples in John 21.

Hope for Those Hesitant to Host

We should recognize that pastors are not the only church members who strengthen the church through hospitality. Paul urges the Romans to pursue hospitality (Rom. 12:13), and Peter commands the churches in view in 1 Peter to be hospitable without complaining (1 Pet. 4:9).

While the lists of qualifications in 1 Timothy 3:1–7 and Titus 1:5–9 filter those who are not called, they also guide men who are. And every man called to shepherd God’s people is growing on a spectrum of consistency in these characteristics. If you need to grow in hospitality, I first suggest lowering your expectations regarding the formal details of the event itself. The meal and setting need not be extravagant. Simple, moderate food, drink, and environment foster the best atmosphere for pastoral hospitality. Second, develop a specific prayer list for those you want to host. Who around you is needy? Who in your sphere of influence does God seem to be calling to leadership? Pray for them daily for a week and then make the invite. God will give you courage and prepare them to hear from you. Finally, chat with other leaders about your need to grow as a host. Heed their counsel on how to be a hospitable man, not just a meal or event host. Let them prune away selfishness and broaden your love for God and the Church.



Leaders As Hosts

By / Feb 19

Editor’s note: This article is part two of a four-part series. Access the full series here.

In the first post in this series, I noted that God is hospitable. The Lord’s hospitality to Moses and Israel’s leaders in Exodus 24 stops careful readers in their tracks. What a God! He is holy but personal. And Jesus’s hospitality to Peter and the disciples on the shore of Galilee humbles us. So kind is the resurrected Son. God reveals Himself as a host in these two scenes and many other places in Scripture.

Hospitality is also a human activity in Scripture, especially for leaders. Here, I want to draw attention to one quality that surfaces consistently in scenes where leaders show hospitality in Scripture: urgency. I will trace this theme in three instances.

Abraham’s Hasty Hospitality Toward His Three Guests (Gen. 18)

Abraham’s hospitality to the three men who visited him in Genesis 18 contributes more broadly to the storyline of Genesis and Scripture. First, these visitors confirm God’s covenant promise to Abraham. What God promised Abraham in Genesis 12:1–3 and 15:1–6 (cf. Rom. 4:18–21) had not yet been realized. Abraham and Sarah were aged. As Abraham hosted these men, the Lord spoke to Abraham and announced that the time for him and Sarah to have a son had now arrived. Within one year, Sarah would give birth to a son (18:10). This was beyond belief for Sarah. She laughed. She wondered if she could have the delight of a child when Abraham, her lord, was old. Furthermore, in Sarah’s statement, Peter saw a title that all Christian women should apply to their husbands (1 Pet. 3:6).

These two pillars of biblical theology are rooted in Abraham’s prompt hospitality to the three visitors. When Abraham first saw them, he hastened to greet them and offer food and drink to refresh them after their travels (18:1–5). When they agreed to stay, “Abraham hurried into the tent and said to Sarah, ‘Quick! Knead three measures of fine flour and make bread’” (v. 6, CSB).

David’s Determined Hospitality Toward Mephibosheth (2 Sam. 9)

The Lord’s covenant with David in 2 Samuel 7 casts a long shadow over redemptive history. The promise that an heir of David will sit on David’s throne and rule over Israel is realized once and for all in Jesus, God’s eternal Son (Luke 1:32–33; Heb. 1:5). Even in the near context of 2 Samuel 8–10, scene after scene demonstrates that the Lord has indeed established David as ruling king over His people.

In 2 Samuel 8–10, David is victorious in all directions. David’s military successes immediately confirm God’s covenant with him. Sandwiched between these chapters is the account of David’s hospitality to Mephibosheth. David’s hospitality fulfills his covenant obligation to Jonathan, Saul’s son. In 1 Samuel 20:11–17, David entered a covenant with Jonathan to watch over Jonathan’s household should David outlive him. Jonathan knew that David was the Lord’s anointed. Now that David was established as king over Israel and Judah, he was determined to fulfill his covenant with Jonathan.

He was so determined that he expanded that covenant to include not only Jonathan but any of Saul’s household (2 Sam. 9:1). When Saul’s servant Ziba reported that there was a son of Jonathan yet living, David was immediately determined to bring him to Jerusalem (v. 5). David restored land to Mephibosheth and appointed Saul’s servant Ziba to manage it for him. “So Mephibosheth ate at David’s table just like one of the king’s sons” (v. 11).

Publius of Malta’s Public Hospitality Toward Paul and the Shipwrecked Prisoners (Acts 28:1–10)

Acts 27 is one of the longest chapters in Acts. And it is entirely about a sea voyage and a shipwreck. The boat carrying Paul and his fellow prisoners to Rome ran aground at Malta, breaking into pieces. The crew and prisoners made it to shore, and the people of Malta welcomed them. Paul gathered wood, and when he placed it on the fire, a viper came out and bit his hand. The people of Malta knew Paul was a prisoner and surmised that the god of Justice was paying Paul back for his crimes. When Paul shook the viper off and it was consumed in the fire, they thought Paul was a god (Acts 28:1–6).

All of this precipitated a local official, Publius, to promptly extend hospitality to Paul and company. For three days, Publius entertained the shipwrecked mates. Publius may have been curious about this crew of prisoners and soldiers or Paul and the viper. Or, Publius could have been just doing what civic leaders should do in offering hospitality to Roman guards while they were transporting prisoners. But God had plans to glorify Himself by blessing Publius in his hospitality. During these three days, “Publius’s father was in bed suffering from fever and dysentery. Paul went to him, and praying and laying his hands on him, he healed him” (v. 8). Then many who were ill on the island, under Publius’s jurisdiction, came to Paul and were healed (v. 9). The people of the isle heaped honors on Paul and crew, sending them off with supplies for the journey to Rome (v. 10).

Hospitality and the Supremacy of God

I have chosen to note three scenes of urgent hospitality in Scripture. More are on offer but these give a sense of the general tenor of hospitality that leaders extend to those around them. And they do so with a sense of gusto.

Good leaders know that they are no more effective than the relationships and partnerships they maintain at any moment during the tenure of their position. Hospitality provides leaders the opportunity to evaluate, gain, and maintain relationships to secure and strengthen their positions. Godly leaders see the Lord as the arbiter of their office, and they host to express His character and participate in His redemptive purposes.

One subgroup of leaders, elders in the local church, must be hospitable, as Paul writes in 1 Timothy 3:3 and Titus 1:8. In the next post, I will describe how pastoral hospitality makes sense as a qualification for men called to lead a local church.