“Happy Incidents” from God

By / Jul 9

“Forget not all His benefits.”
Psalm 103:2

It is a delightful and profitable occupation to mark the hand of God in the lives of ancient saints, and to observe his goodness in delivering them, his mercy in pardoning them, and his faithfulness in keeping his covenant with them. But would it not be even more interesting and profitable for us to remark the hand of God in our own lives? Ought we not to look upon our own history as being at least as full of God, as full of his goodness and of his truth, as much a proof of his faithfulness and veracity, as the lives of any of the saints who have gone before? We do our Lord an injustice when we suppose that he wrought all his mighty acts, and showed himself strong for those in the early time, but doth not perform wonders or lay bare his arm for the saints who are now upon the earth. Let us review our own lives. Surely in these we may discover some happy incidents, refreshing to ourselves and glorifying to our God. Have you had no deliverances? Have you passed through no rivers, supported by the divine presence? Have you walked through no fires unharmed? Have you had no manifestations? Have you had no choice favours? The God who gave Solomon the desire of his heart, hath he never listened to you and answered your requests? That God of lavish bounty of whom David sang, “Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things,” hath he never satiated you with fatness? Have you never been made to lie down in green pastures? Have you never been led by the still waters? Surely the goodness of God has been the same to us as to the saints of old. Let us, then, weave his mercies into a song. Let us take the pure gold of thankfulness, and the jewels of praise and make them into another crown for the head of Jesus. Let our souls give forth music as sweet and as exhilarating as came from David’s harp, while we praise the Lord whose mercy endureth forever.



Noah Oldham on Considering Church Planting

By / Jul 8

What are some good questions someone should ask who is considering planting a church?



Episode 167: The Right Kind of Seeker Sensitivity

By / Jul 7

On this episode of the FTC Podcast, Jared Wilson and Ross Ferguson discuss seeker sensitivity in a church. Is it ever okay? How and why?



Thomas Jefferson: A Biography of Spirit and Flesh: An Interview with Thomas S. Kidd

By / Jul 4

Thomas S. Kidd serves as research professor of Church History at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. His latest book, Thomas Jefferson: A Biography of Spirit and Flesh (Yale University Press, 2022), is a revelatory new biography of Thomas Jefferson, focusing on his ethical and spiritual life.

Timothy Larsen said of the book, “Set aside everything you think you know about Thomas Jefferson and religion, and read this book.”

Russell Moore said, “In this long-awaited book, Thomas Kidd, one of the world’s most respected historians, portrays for us a compellingly complicated human being- who through both genius and will, and despite grave flaws, gave us a country we could not recognize apart from him.”

Karen Swallow Prior also commented, “I don’t know a scholar more able than Thomas Kidd to bring breadth, depth, and moral clarity to a treatment of a figure as significant and complicated as Thomas Jefferson- and to do so with vivid, compelling prose that will engage a broad audience of readers.”

James Byrd said that this book “will make an outstanding contribution to scholarship on Jefferson.”

Kevin R.C. Gutzman also stated, “Thomas Kidd gives us the Thomas Jefferson we need right now.”

Recently, Dr. Kidd joined us to answer a few questions about his latest book.

BF: As you state, your latest book is a “narrative of Jefferson’s moral universe more than a traditional biography.” What prompted you to take on Thomas Jefferson as your latest subject and to discuss him from this angle?

TK: There has been increasing controversy in recent years about the Founding Fathers generally, and Jefferson specifically, much of which has to do with moral questions. Many wonder how to reconcile the Jefferson who said that slavery was wrong, and who wrote that “all men are created equal,” with the Jefferson who owned hundreds of people as slaves. “Hypocrisy” is an easy and somewhat deserved reaction to Jefferson’s inconsistency, but I don’t think hypocrisy is a very helpful answer historically when trying to understand the enigma of Jefferson’s beliefs and contradictory life. In this book, I hope I offer a genuinely new approach by trying to understand how Jefferson’s religious and ethical views synced with how he actually lived.

In the book, you describe several tensions in Jefferson’s life. What are some of these tensions, and how do you hope readers will respond to hearing the story of Jefferson’s ethical life?

The most familiar tension is between Jefferson’s belief in God-given equality, and his deep investment in the enslavement of African Americans. A related tension is Jefferson’s constant touting of the virtue of frugality, or living within one’s means, and the disastrous state of his personal finances. Finally – and the one that may be of most interest to the Midwestern Seminary community – is Jefferson’s virtual obsession with the Bible, and his brazen deletion of the miraculous content from the Gospels in the “Jefferson Bible.”

I hope that when confronting as perplexing a character as Jefferson, readers will steer clear both of patriotic apologetics, and of today’s temptation to cancel those in our national past who have manifest failings and sins. It’s much better, I think, to ponder (in Jefferson’s case) how someone who did terrible things could also be used for great good in American history, most notably his articulation of our God-given rights and equality, and his championing of religious liberty.

Jefferson’s religious beliefs often did not help him politically. His convictions even led him to cut out sections from the New Testament to form the “Jefferson Bible.” Can you tell us more about the origins of the Jefferson Bible, and how Jefferson’s contradictory spiritual convictions can serve as a warning for Christians today?

 A lot of Bible readers implicitly cut out parts of Scripture they don’t like. But Jefferson literally did so, with scissors. He was an early example of what became “higher criticism” of Scripture, or the assumption that some parts of the Bible are erroneous, unreliable, or are later additions. Jefferson’s Jesus became a great teacher of ethics, but not the resurrected Son of God. The warning here is that as soon as we place our own standards of reason above any part of the Word of God, we are on a slippery slope.

As you’ve mentioned, Thomas Jefferson can serve as a needed example for us today. What are some of the other ways, possibly missed in a traditional biography, that Jefferson’s ethical life can give us lessons for our current cultural moment?

One of our biggest cultural challenges is knowing what to do with historical figures who were once widely revered, such as Jefferson, but who engaged in behavior we see as appalling and immoral, such as enslaving people. Somehow we have to be able to clearly repudiate these actions, while also not casually assuming that we are morally superior because we denounce (or cancel) such people. A proper Christian reaction to the terrible failings of people in history is sober humility, not pride or “virtue signaling.”

 

Editor’s Note: Thomas Jefferson: A Biography of Spirit and Flesh is now available for purchase.



Episode 166: Jonathan Dodson on The Unwavering Pastor

By / Jun 29

On this episode of the FTC Podcast, Jared Wilson talks with pastor and author Jonathan Dodson about his new book, The Unwavering Pastor, and how ministry leaders can navigate this strange and trying new season with grace and endurance.



4 Thoughts on Spiritual Fatherhood

By / Jun 27

For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel.
— 1 Corinthians 4:15

As I get older, I think more and more about this claim from Paul — and the concept of “spiritual fatherhood” generally — and it seems a pressing issue to me, not just “culturally,” but personally. I won’t say I’ve done a great job of being a spiritual father, but by God’s grace, I want to be. And I’ve certainly benefited from spiritual fatherhood. These are some thoughts on what this practice looks like that I’ve been kicking around for some time and thought might be worth sharing.

1. Spiritual fatherhood is fatherhood, not guru-dom.

In other words, it does not consist in handing down spiritual proverbs from on high like some kind of authoritative oracle, but rather leads from alongside, encourages through relationship, coaches as one invested. By “guides,” I take Paul to mean theological and moral influences — both good and bad, perhaps — and these kinds of voices are of course many, especially in our day of talking head religious media and Internet know-it-alls. There is of course wisdom and positive influence to be found in these arenas. But nothing beats the wisdom of one who knows you and speaks into your growth and can even tailor and customize guidance according to one’s personality, giftedness, experience, and calling. Just as a father may speak to his own children in different ways according to their capacities, a spiritual father, unlike so many of our self-appointed gurus, knows how to relate to different believers in different ways. And while a guru only knows how to dispense all the right information, the spiritual father is honest about his own sin and struggles, transparent about his own mistakes and misunderstandings, and doesn’t claim to have all the answers. He just keeps pointing you to the One who does.

2. Spiritual fatherhood is spiritual, not fleshly.

I’m thinking of spiritual guidance of young men here especially, though this is an equally important point for those discipling young women as well. So much of the guidance Christian young men receive, even from Christian guides, is bound up in baptizing their baser instincts. They are led by many talking heads to equate belligerence with boldness and quarrelsomeness with courage. Their unchecked aggression is celebrated and their unkindness treated as a virtue. This is all packaged as some kind of un-squishining of the male wiring, when what it really is an affront to the fruit of the Spirit. Of course, spiritual maturity must be worked out practically — enfleshed, if you will — and for men in particular we want to home in on what male headship in the home and church looks like. But this work is so much more than simply “manning up;” it is growing up into Christlikeness. And this work inevitably orients around self-control, gentleness, patience, etc.

3. Spiritual fatherhood is about a legacy of faithfulness, not a record of successes.

I know some folks will say it’s wrong to think about one’s legacy, but I think it depends more on how one thinks about it. If a man getting older is focusing primarily on making his own name great, making sure everybody remembers him, and how he might connect himself to greater visibility via books, speaking engagements, market share, building placards, etc., then, yes, this is a prideful exaltation. However, it’s not wrong to want to leave behind something that lasts. And this is why spiritual fatherhood is more invested in leaving behind practices, commitments, and habits that will continue in the exaltation of Christ. Whether they remember our names is not the point; remembering what we are “passing down” is. Spiritual fathers begin passing the baton to the next generation, giving them the stewardship not of their own name but of fidelity to God’s word, commitment to the local church, and so on.

4. Spiritual fatherhood is local, not distant.

Similar to my thoughts from point 1, I just want to make the case that real spiritual growth — of all kinds — comes from the Holy Spirit normatively through the discipleship of the local church. Undoubtedly the people we read, go to hear at conferences, follow online, etc. can edify us and positively shape and influence us. But there’s no substitute for a dad. I think about this in terms of my own father quite a bit these days. I’ve had numerous Christian men speak into my life, including one or two who I would say have fathered me spiritually, and I’ve benefited from countless theologians and other ministry leaders, but the single greatest impact on my commitment to Christ’s church, I’m convinced, was having a dad and mom who were undeterred churchfolk. My dad was not a pastor. He did not come from a family of pastors. He was a school teacher, then worked retail most of his life until retirement. But no matter where we lived, no matter the stage of life or the state of the family finances or the work schedule or their marriage, we went to church. Up close faithfulness over a long period of time will have much more of an impact than an endless number of fire tweets.

Spiritual fathers speaking into the lives of young men realize that accountability comes with access, that authority comes with availability, that ambition must come with authenticity — and that lasting, formative influence comes from closeness. You cannot be a spiritual father simply by monitoring someone’s intellectual progress. You have to get up in someone’s business. Spiritual fatherhood is local.



Human Cruelty and the Compassion of God

By / Jun 27

This summer, I finally decided to open a book my mom gifted me last year called Where the Crawdads Sing. Since it is one of the best-selling books of all time and has a theater debut in July, it went from the bottom of my bookshelf to the top of my summer fiction reading list.

My hesitancy in exploring the narrative sooner came from a warning I received about how heartbreaking the journey would be. Without going into detail, these cautions were not unfounded. Yet, as I read the life of marsh-dwelling protagonist Kya, coming face-to-face with the reality of human depravity filled me anew with care for those in this broken world who do not know Jesus Christ.

Romans 1:28-32 tells us this about the unrighteous:

And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They are filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.

Before the Lord saved me, stories of horrific things around the world were almost unbearable. It was hard to want to live in a world where so much evil exists.

But this passage is not just speaking to an outside world: it speaks to our state without the grace of God. This passage isn’t just calling out the person or group of people who may come to your mind when you think “evil,” “boastful,” or “ruthless.” Without God’s work, this is you. This is me. This is the culture of death that we daily exist in.

It may sound harsh, but watch how quickly the veneer of love, grace, and patience disappears when our idols are jeopardized. In writing to the early churches, James exhorts fellow believers:

What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions (4:1-3).

People with good intentions (myself included) can end up defending themselves rather than listening to the pains of another. Those who claim to be passionate about truth can resort to weaponizing God’s Word to prove a point rather than guiding to living water. Even the brief haughty response given at a slight inconvenience reveals the selfishness of our nature. We don’t want to admit it, but we can be cruel.

Blessedly, one of the few things more overwhelming than human cruelty is the compassion of God.

This is important for me to remember not only as I flip through the pages of Where the Crawdads Sing, but also as I experience cruelty against me or observe it festering in the world. One of the best places to go to recall God’s compassion, even on the darkest of nights, is his Word.

God’s Word comforts those in affliction while also instructing us when we are tempted to go our own way:

“The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. ‘The Lord is my portion,’ says my soul, ‘Therefore I will hope in him.’” (Lamentations 3:22-24).

“Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you” (Ephesians 4:32).

“Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony” (Colossians 3:12-14).

Living in the grace of God is not a guarantee—it is a gift.

Though salvation is guaranteed secure through Jesus, we can’t assume that confession of a surrendered life means living a life submitted to the gospel—for us or anyone else. To “lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely,” and “run with endurance the race that is set before us,” as commanded in Hebrews 12:1 means acknowledging that pursuing righteousness is a daily decision.

If you confess Christ as Lord, I implore you to keep going. Even when waves of hatred threaten to drown you, remain steadfast in Jesus. When you grow weary of doing good, cast yourself upon your never-changing God. Remember when you come face-to-face with human cruelty, you have a God who showers compassion upon you and upon this hurting world through the mercy of his Son. Recall that by the power of the Holy Spirit:

We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies (2 Corinthians 4:8-10).

If you have experienced the compassion of God, you can show the compassion of God.

Let us consider how we may reach out our hands to the hurting and guide them toward God’s goodness today.



Thy Redeemer is Yours

By / Jun 25

“Thy Redeemer.”
Isaiah 54:5

Jesus, the Redeemer, is altogether ours and ours forever. All the offices of Christ are held on our behalf. He is king for us, priest for us, and prophet for us. Whenever we read a new title of the Redeemer, let us appropriate him as ours under that name as much as under any other. The shepherd’s staff, the father’s rod, the captain’s sword, the priest’s mitre, the prince’s sceptre, the prophet’s mantle, all are ours. Jesus hath no dignity which he will not employ for our exaltation, and no prerogative which he will not exercise for our defence. His fulness of Godhead is our unfailing, inexhaustible treasure-house.

His manhood also, which he took upon him for us, is ours in all its perfection. To us our gracious Lord communicates the spotless virtue of a stainless character; to us he gives the meritorious efficacy of a devoted life; on us he bestows the reward procured by obedient submission and incessant service. He makes the unsullied garment of his life our covering beauty; the glittering virtues of his character our ornaments and jewels; and the superhuman meekness of his death our boast and glory. He bequeaths us his manger, from which to learn how God came down to man; and his Cross to teach us how man may go up to God. All his thoughts, emotions, actions, utterances, miracles, and intercessions, were for us. He trod the road of sorrow on our behalf, and hath made over to us as his heavenly legacy the full results of all the labours of his life. He is now as much ours as heretofore; and he blushes not to acknowledge himself “our Lord Jesus Christ,” though he is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords. Christ everywhere and every way is our Christ, forever and ever most richly to enjoy. O my soul, by the power of the Holy Spirit! call him this morning, “thy Redeemer.”



Jani Ortlund on Longevity in Marriage

By / Jun 24

What is a key ingredient for longevity in marriage?



Episode 165: Knowing God’s Will for Your Life

By / Jun 22

On this episode of the FTC Podcast, Jared Wilson and Ross Ferguson discuss how a Christian can know God’s will for their life.