Clint Pressley On Leading Big Change

By / Dec 1

FTC.co asks Clint Pressley, lead pastor of Hickory Grove Baptist Church in Charlotte, NC, “How do you lead big change in a church without blowing it up?”



Finding Important What Jesus Finds Important

By / Dec 1

What’s important to Jesus?

This is the question I asked recently at a men’s breakfast in my church. The men willingly offered a variety of solid biblical answers: the church, love, truth, individual Christians, evangelism, prayer, outcasts, and a host of other answers.

In the days leading up to this event I had been reading through Matthew’s Gospel in my personal daily readings. As I did so, I was struck by two things that appear important to Jesus in Matthew 22–23. It seems to me, from these chapters that it is important to Jesus to know the Scriptures and live with integrity.

Know the Scriptures

In Matthew 22:23–33 we have recorded for us the discussion between Jesus and the Sadducees concerning the resurrection. The Sadducees—a Jewish religious group—did not believe in the resurrection and so they concoct a ludicrous scenario in which one woman is married to seven brothers, one after another as each passes away. “In the resurrection,” they ask, “whose wife will she be?” (v. 28). Jesus responds by telling them they are “wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God” (v. 29). Jesus takes issue with them because they do not know the Scriptures.

There are two aspects to Jesus’s answer. First, the Sadducees do not know the Scriptures. Second, they do not know the power of God. These two aspects are interrelated, however. Consider Paul’s declaration in Romans: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation” (1:16). Scripture and power are closely related—one cannot fully be experienced without the other.

Evidently Jesus sees knowing the Scriptures as important. But knowledge is not the only thing Jesus considers important.

Live with Integrity

In Matthew 23 Jesus turns his attention to a couple of other Jewish religious groups: the Pharisees and Scribes. Here Jesus delivers what could be considered the anti-beatitudes as he pronounces seven woes. While the beatitudes are declarations of divine favor, these woes are prophetic pronouncements of judgement.

Jesus’s primary criticism of these two groups is that they do not practice what they preach (23:3). In fact, six times he labels them hypocrites in these seven woes (vv. 13, 15, 23, 25, 27, 29). The Pharisees and Scribes are two-faced, pretenders, demanding more of their hearers than they expect of themselves. In short, their life didn’t match their doctrine.

It is clearly important to Jesus that people live with integrity. Belief must match behavior; doctrine should align with deeds.

Compassionately Demanded

According to what Matthew has recorded in his Gospel, Jesus sees at least two things as important: knowing the Scriptures and living with integrity. More, he not only sees them as important but demands them of his followers. After all, what is recorded in Scripture is there for our benefit (cf. Rom. 4:23–24). If we are to find important what Jesus finds important we must know the Scriptures and live with integrity.

Jesus doesn’t demand these things from us like a stern teacher, beckoning us towards him with a single finger. Rather, Jesus is more like a caring friend who places his arm around our shoulder and encourages us onwards by pointing the way. Knowing the Scriptures and living with integrity is compassionately demanded of us by our Savior. But this makes them no less urgent and important—it makes them more so, because they are two important ways in which we evidence the change that Jesus has brought about in our lives.

May we, with the encouragement of Christ, ever grow in knowing the Scriptures and living with integrity. Let us find important what Jesus finds important.



Looking Up after Loss: Learning from the Prophet Anna

By / Nov 30

It must’ve been a day like any other day as she trodded the dusty Jerusalem streets. The sun might have peeked around the corner of the stone walls just the same, with the smoke of sacrifices transported by the air, and conversations humming in the courtyard while business haggled in the streets.

But it didn’t matter what the day was like. Regardless, the prophet Anna would make her way to the temple again, and again, and again. Luke said it was almost as if she never left her worship, “with fasting and prayer night and day” (Luke 2:37).

Luke gives us only a few sentences about Anna’s life (Luke 2:36-38). Did she amount to anything more than her time at the temple? If we met her in real life today, we’d probably forget about her tomorrow. Widowed for over fifty years with no children and little material fortune makes her an unlikely portrait preserved in history.

Though she may appear forgettable, her lifetime saw unforgettable suffering. In her research, Rebecca McLaughlin notes that Anna would’ve watched the tables turn in Jewish history: “At 84, she was born at a time when the Jews were self-governing, lived through the prosperous reign of Queen Salome Alexandra, and saw the crushing end of Jewish sovereignty when the Romans took over in 63 BC.” [1]

Did she see the devastation of her nation’s autonomy firsthand? Did she live with gruesome memories of the Roman occupation? Did her loved ones die in battle or siege? How did her husband die, and did she lose her livelihood with him? We can only imagine how these events shaped Anna by the time we meet her in Luke’s account.

Even if we are not widowed, or childless, or citizens of the Roman Empire, Anna’s story is woven in ours. Do you feel like your world has crumbled? Are you oppressed by human authorities? Have you lost a loved one? Or never gotten what society expected you to have, such as marriage, or children, or the American dream? 

So much of Anna’s story amounts to her loss. An empty widow’s home made the temple her abode. Lack of a family led her to practically live in the Lord’s house. Ironically, even the temple where she worshipped was a reminder of her people’s lost freedom, as it is known today as Herod’s Temple, expanded by the “client king” of Rome.[2]

What strikes me about Anna is that even though her life was constructed by her loss, she was not paralyzed or blinded by it.

My tendency is to recoil from a world that takes things away from me. I would hide for days with my face in my lap if I could. Anna didn’t—she looked up. And one day, she saw Christ.

What if Anna stayed away from the temple that day? Or turned her nose up at God who blessed and took away, instead of turning to him and his people? She would have missed seeing her salvation, carried by a teenage mother up the temple steps. She would’ve missed Jesus.

If we look too long on what we’ve lost, we can become blindfolded to the salvation right in front of us.

We can look at loss for a while and mourn, as we often should. Grief is no blindfold, but an eye prescription that sees all is not as it should be.

It wouldn’t have been wrong for Anna to grieve her losses. Even though we have no account of her doing so, it’s hard to imagine she wasn’t above sorrow or weeping over what she would never have or get back. Jesus himself is described as being “acquainted with grief,” and we reflect him when we lament good things that never were or are no more (Isaiah 53:3).

But despair looks too long at loss and locks us in its den. There is no light at the end of the tunnel of the despair, which implies that there is no one and nothing left, and this couldn’t be further from the truth. In their saddest psalms, the psalmists could see their salvation like a light at the end of a dark tunnel (Psalm 42-43, 88:1). Even when they felt hopeless, they could see glimmers of hope in the darkness. By the power of the Holy Spirit, we can, too. Christians abound in hope, even if we abound in nothing else (Romans 15:13).

I write this knowing that despair can be easier to believe some days than this truth. I can’t deny that I have cried in the night, clung to the darkness, and scowled at church on Sundays, wondering, “God, why did you take it, or him, or her away?” Maybe you’ve done this, too.

Anna’s story teaches us, however, that day, after day, after day, no matter how much we lose, we will have God.

And we will see him, as he raises our heads to look up at him.

Look up. Don’t miss him.

Surely, we will “look upon the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living” (Psalm 27:13).

[1] Rebecca McLaughlin, Jesus Through the Eyes of Women: How the First Female Disciples Help Us Know and Love the Lord (Austin, TX: The Gospel Coalition, 2022), 43-44.

[2] Andreas J. Köstenberger, L. Scott Kellum, and Charles L. Quarles, The Lion and the Lamb: New Testament Essentials from The Cradle, the Cross, and the Crown (Nashville: B&H Publishing, 2012), 27.



12 Spurgeon Quotes on Joy

By / Nov 30

Good stories have good endings. The story that began in eternity past and unfolded in time at Bethlehem will culminate in the acclamation and glorification of Christ when he comes again. For Charles Spurgeon, that was the very height of joy itself. Indeed, he said, “No joy ever visits my soul like that of knowing that Jesus is highly exalted,” and especially, “that to him ‘every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.’”

Spurgeon knew that the fountain of joy flowed from the hole in his savior’s side. He understood what “showers of mercy,” “streams of benediction,” “mountains of joy,” and “hills of happiness” would be savored when Jesus “comes and reigns in thy soul.”

The reign of the glorified Christ was God’s grand design; and so Charles encouraged sorrowful saints, saying, “It is not to sorrow but to joy that the great King invites his subjects.” God did not call his subjects to “be distressed,” but rather that they “may be delighted that he bids [them] believe in the crucified Savior and live.” For Spurgeon, it was simple: “We must have God or we are of all men most miserable.”

Spurgeon preached to the miserable in two senses. To the despondent believer, he shepherded them, saying, “Bear your sorrows bravely, for they are appointed of your Heavenly Father in supreme wisdom.” The goodness of God enabled his people to “Bear them joyfully,” knowing that “the peaceable fruits of righteousness” would be the result. Spurgeon encouraged those in the desert of discipleship with truth that though the experience of union would wax and wane, its vital reality would remain the same.

To the lost soul, Spurgeon earnestly heralded the gospel. He fervently prayed that his proclamations of Christ would drive sinners to look to Christ and be saved. Even while he was weighed down by the burden of unregenerate sinners, he counted it a joy “to deal to-day with lost souls who are not yet hopelessly lost.”

Every time the gospel of Christ pierced the heart and ransomed an enemy of God, the pastor rejoiced exuberantly. In Spurgeon’s view, it was a “joyful business altogether,” for “the Savior is glad to save, and the sinner is glad to be saved.” Furthermore, personal salvation incited corporate acclamation, as Spurgeon said, “What joy there is in the church of God when sinners are converted!”

Spurgeon knew that “[God] is great and glorious, whatever we may be.” This truth allowed him to rightly acknowledge that “it is our joy, our safety, our everlasting happiness, that we should become his servants.” In the spirit of seeking such eternal gladness in Christ, here are twelve quotes regarding joy from the Prince of Preachers.

1. “No joy ever visits my soul like that of knowing that Jesus is highly exalted, and that to him ‘every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.’”

“It is delightful to think that Christ will have the glory of all God’s grace; it were shocking if it were not so. Who could bear to see Jesus robbed of his reward? We are indignant that any should usurp his place, and ashamed of ourselves that we do not glorify him more. No joy ever visits my soul like that of knowing that Jesus is highly exalted, and that to him “every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

2. “Thou canst not tell what showers of mercy, what streams of benediction, what mountains of joy, and hills of happiness, shall be thine when Jesus comes and reigns in thy soul.”

“Behold, I make all things new,” saith he. Oh! thou canst not tell the influences of his scepter when he sits upon the throne of the heart! Thou canst not tell what showers of mercy, what streams of benediction, what mountains of joy, and hills of happiness, shall be thine when Jesus comes and reigns in thy soul.”

3. “It is not to sorrow but to joy that the great King invites his subjects, when he glorifies his Son Jesus.”

“It is for love; in the gospel, sinner, you are invited to be reconciled to God, you are assured that God forgives your sins, ceases to be angry, and would have you reconciled to him through his Son. Thus love is established between God and the soul. Then it is for laughter, for happiness, for joy. Those who come to God in Christ Jesus, and believe in him, have their hearts filled with overflowing peace, which calm lake of peace often lifts up itself in waves of joy, which clap their hands in exultation. It is not to sorrow but to joy that the great King invites his subjects, when he glorifies his Son Jesus. It is not that you may be distressed, but that you may be delighted that he bids you believe in the crucified Savior and live.”

4. “We must have God or we are of all men most miserable.”

“God has ordained it so that a spiritual man is wretched without the love of God in his heart. If you and I want present happiness without God, we had better be sinners outright and live upon this world than try to be happy in religion without communion with Jesus. Present happiness for a genuine Christian in the absence of Christ is an absolute impossibility. We must have God or we are of all men most miserable.”

5. “Bear your sorrows bravely, for they are appointed of your Heavenly Father in supreme wisdom. Bear them joyfully, for they will bring forth to you the peaceable fruits of righteousness.”

“The day will come, dear friend, when your cheeks, all befouled with weeping, shall be washed, and made fair to look upon. Your eyes may be weary with waiting and watching, and red with weeping; but that weeping shall endure only for a night. “Joy cometh in the morning,” as surely as the morning cometh after the night. Bear your sorrows bravely, for they are appointed of your Heavenly Father in supreme wisdom. Bear them joyfully, for they will bring forth to you the peaceable fruits of righteousness.”

6. “Our joy is that we have to deal to-day with lost souls who are not yet hopelessly lost.”

“My soul sees, as in a vision, souls hopelessly lost, drifting on the waves of eternity, beyond all hope or help. Alas! Alas! Millions of our race are now in that condition. Upon them has passed the second death, and powerless are we all to save them. Towards them even the gospel has no aspect of hope. Our joy is that we have to deal to-day with lost souls who are not yet hopelessly lost. They are dead in sin, but there is a quickening power which can make them live. O mariner of the sea of life, fisher of men upon this stormy sea, those castaways whom you meet with are accessible to your efforts of compassion, they can be rescued from the pitiless deeps; your mission is not a hopeless one.”

7. *In reference to Luke 19:6* “From this text, it appears that, when sinners receive Jesus, they receive him joyfully, so that there is joy on both sides. It is a joyful business altogether; the Savior is glad to save, and the sinner is glad to be saved.”

“From this text, it appears that, when sinners receive Jesus, they receive him joyfully, so that there is joy on both sides. It is a joyful business altogether; the Savior is glad to save, and the sinner is glad to be saved. I know which of the two has the greater joy, for it is always more blessed to give than to receive; and the great heart of Jesus, in its infinite benevolence, is conscious of a rarer joy than even the saved sinner can experience. It is a delight to him to save; so great is his joy that he cannot contain it all within his own heart, and he represents himself as calling together his friends and neighbors, and saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me; for I have found my sheep which was lost.’”

8. “What joy there is in the church of God when sinners are converted!”

“The woman who lights the candle and sweeps the house, to whom the silver belongs, will herself find it. Now notice when she had found it what she did, she rejoiced. The greater her trouble in searching, the higher her joy in finding. What joy there is in the church of God when sinners are converted!”

9. “I do not think the church rejoices enough. We all grumble enough and groan enough: but very few of us rejoice enough.”

“And now I must conclude with this LESSON TO THIS SAINTS. I think beloved, it will not be hard for you to learn. The angels of heaven rejoice over Sinners that repent: saints of God, will not you and I do the same? I do not think the church rejoices enough. We all grumble enough and groan enough: but very few of us rejoice enough. When we take a large number into the church it is spoken of as a great mercy; but is the greatness of that mercy appreciated? I will tell you who they are that can most appreciate the conversion of sinners. They are those that are just converted themselves, or those that have been great sinners themselves.”

10. “My brethren, it is in proportion as you get near to God that you enter into the full enjoyment of life — that life which Jesus Christ gives you, and which Jesus Christ preserves in you.”

“Let the soul obey God, let it be holy, pure, gracious, then is it happy, and truly living; but a soul sundered from God is a soul blasted, killed, destroyed; it exists in a dreadful death; all its true peace, dignity, and glory, are gone; it is a hideous ruin, the mere corpse of manhood. The new life brings us near to God, makes us think of him, makes us love him, and ultimately makes us like him. My brethren, it is in proportion as you get near to God that you enter into the full enjoyment of life — that life which Jesus Christ gives you, and which Jesus Christ preserves in you. “In his favor is life.” Psalm 30:5.”

11. “Is your heart a holy heart? Do you desire holiness? Do you find your pleasure in it?”

“Is your heart resting upon Jesus Christ? Is it a believing heart? Does your heart meditate upon divine things? Does it find its best solace there? Is your heart a humble heart? Are you constrained to ascribe all to sovereign grace? Is your heart a holy heart? Do you desire holiness? Do you find your pleasure in it? Is your heart bold for God? Does your heart ascribe praises to God? Is it a grateful heart? and is it a heart that is wholly fixed upon God, desiring never to go astray? If it be, then you have marks of election.”

12. “He is great and glorious, whatever we may be; and it is for our joy, our safety, our everlasting happiness, that we should become his servants. It is necessary, for the right ordering of our lives, that our hearts may be in tune to yield the music of joy, that we should be tuned by obedience to his will, and that we should learn to serve him.”

“He is infinitely greater than we are, so that what I shall have to say to you at this time about our going to work for God in his vineyard is not to be understood as though we could do anything meritorious in the eyes of our Maker, or as if he had any need of us. He is great and glorious, whatever we may be; and it is for our joy, our safety, our everlasting happiness, that we should become his servants. It is necessary, for the right ordering of our lives, that our hearts may be in tune to yield the music of joy, that we should be tuned by obedience to his will, and that we should learn to serve him. My prayer is that, this very hour, some who have never known our Savior may find him making himself known to them, and engaging them in his service.”

This article was previously published by The Spurgeon Library. To read this article there or learn more about resources available through the Spurgeon Library click here.



Episode 188: Youth Pastor Pet Peeves

By / Nov 30

Jared and Ross let worship leaders and pastors have it. In this episode of the FTC Podcast, they take aim at what bugs them about youth pastors. Come for the grouchiness. Stay for the encouragement.



The Glory of Church Graveyards

By / Nov 29

Every couple of months, I go for a walk around our church graveyard. I have called it a cemetery for the longest time, but it’s actually a graveyard. Graveyards are connected to a church. Cemeteries are not.

As I walk through the graveyard, I visit the graves of saints that have passed on since I have been pastor and I remember them. I’m encouraged by their graves to keep pressing forward in pastoral ministry.

I once spoke with a pastor who told me, “I don’t like church graveyards. That’s just a picture that you are a dying church.” I thought that was quite silly. A church graveyard often means that the church has lasted for decades and decades as saints have labored there to preach the Gospel and build up the body.

It’s sad that many new churches that are started do not get to have a graveyard. Most of the time, I get it. If you plant a church in downtown Boston, you can’t really have a graveyard attached to it. But, how much we lose when our church doesn’t have a graveyard.

Here are five reasons I think there is glory in a church having a graveyard attached to it.

#1 It reminds us of our own death as we enter worship

The fact is, we in America rarely think of our own mortality, especially if we are young. We kind of know in the back of our minds that we will die someday, but it’s still a long way off, right? Wrong. In our church graveyard, there are people of all ages. We have several babies buried in our graveyard that were only a few days old. We have kids buried there. We have people in our graveyard that were in their 40s and 50s when they died. Every person in the graveyard that died at old age were at one time my age. And now they are gone. And so will my life be. So every day when I see that graveyard, I am reminded I will die and that causes me to consider my life and value what is important. It causes me to make my life about the right things and not waste it.

#2 It gives you the church history in a physical way

Our church graveyard has tombstones in it of people born before the Civil War. There are tombstones you can’t even read anymore because they have weathered so much. It’s very easy to see where the graveyard began and how it has slowly spread out over the last 132 years. Our church also has a book recounting the history of the church from 1890 to 2003 when it was written. So I can easily go out and connect graves to names in that history book. It gives me a physical church history to have a graveyard.

#3 It fleshes out Hebrews 12:1-2

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” -Hebrews 12:1-2

Hebrews 11 is known as the hall of faith. It goes through the whole story of the Old Testament and shows how God worked through the faithfulness of His people. And it concludes with 12:1-2, implying that it’s not just the Old Testament saints, but also every saint. All the saints that have gone before us are cheering us on to continue running the race and not give up.

The church graveyard is that cloud of witnesses. There was a dear senior saint in our church that passed away in 2020 named Evelyn. Evelyn treated me like I had been her pastor her entire life, yet I was only her pastor for 14 months before she died. The Lord sovereignly planned it that Evelyn would be buried right in line with the window at my desk in my office. So any time I am in my office discouraged and wanting to give up, I see her grave out there and it’s like she’s telling me, “Keep going. Look to Jesus.”

The church graveyard is a cloud of witnesses telling those in Christ that are still living to keep going.

#4 It gives mourning people a chance to continue processing their grief in sight of the church

On a regular basis, I’m in my office and see people pull up and get out of their car to stand at the grave of their loved ones. It’s pretty common that people do this right after the death. And when they do, they are right in line with the church. They aren’t out in the city with no one around to turn to in the midst of their grief. There have been many times as pastor that I have seen them out there and walked out to say hello while they were mourning. I’ve often been met with a look of comfort that someone was there and saw them struggling.

#5 It is an epic preparation for the second coming of Jesus

On the day Jesus returns, the graves are gonna bust open. What a glorious sight it’s gonna be! The saved and the unsaved will both be raised, but in different ways. The saved will be caught up in the clouds with Jesus. A cemetery in the city might have various pockets of saved people come forth. But imagine a church graveyard where hopefully the majority of those buried there are saved. Imagine the sight it’s gonna be when the whole field erupts like a resurrection volcano!

Church graveyards are not a sign the church is dying. There is much glory in them.



Who Will Walk These Streets?

By / Nov 28

As the nights darkness caves in, your feet tread the dusty, narrow, corridor-streets
High cement walls nestle your traveled bones; enclosing you completely into the dense life surrounding you
Heavy doors rest half open, handles of all different designs worn from overuse
Windows sit like eyes, wide-open, waiting
Waiting for someone, something, to bring forth a light to illuminate the darkness
Voices simmer, cats scatter, and bread is broken, but the air remains weighty
Every home holds souls, blindly sleeping to the eternal wrath awaiting them
Despite the soft light spilling through the cracks, darkness echoes and light is void
But
Your feet are walking these streets
An everlasting flame rips brightly through your soul, only concealed by skin and bones
Tears sting your eyes as Hope wells, though sin abounds, Grace abounding all the more
And suddenly, you’re looking into the heavy eyes of a void heart, begging the Father to wake the unaware, sleeping soul
Your lips part and the breeze softens
The night air stands still
And a name is whispered among the voices
Jesus.
A small light strikes the black night
The darkness trembles
For the first murmur of truth has brushed the concrete rooftops
And your feet that were made for walking
O how beautiful they are
The feet of those who bring good news.

Family of Christ, what kind of people will we be? Those that actively pursue the lost or those that passively stand by? Be careful not to forget the millions of souls, now as we read, waiting to be breached with the Gospel. We are the Church, the weak vessels privileged to be used by our mighty God! Let us call to mind Jesus’ exhortation to his disciples in John 4:34-35, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest’? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest…”

I pray this simple poem, written in an unreached village of North Africa, where the fields are ready today for reaping, stirs your soul to labor with all zeal in making disciples of all nations.



Giving Thanks with Charles Haddon Spurgeon

By / Nov 24

“If we will only think, we shall begin to thank.”

For Charles Spurgeon, life was to be lived coram Deo, “in the presence of God.” Indeed, Spurgeon believed that “no joy is like the joy of Christ’s presence with his people.” A presence sweet enough to “[drown] every note of sorrow” and tune every heart “to the loudest notes of thankfulness.”

Spurgeon believed it was “a heavenly thing to be thankful.” After all, it was gratitude which “ought to teach us the divine object of grace.” Accordingly, he longed for his heart to burn with the “sacred flame of thankfulness.”

For the world being happy was a prerequisite to being grateful, but Spurgeon knew that “God’s people are always happy when they are grateful” to Him. In fact, Spurgeon was so certain he said, “We should be ten times more full of bliss if we were proportionately more full of thankfulness.”

For Spurgeon, living with thankfulness was an all-encompassing commitment. Whether for richer or for poorer, even in sickness and in health. Indeed, he would often remind his congregation that “you have received all you have from God the Father through Christ.” This truth made every enjoyment an avenue for God glorifying gratitude.

Thus, in all “our eating, our drinking,” and “social meetings” Spurgeon claimed “we should give thanks unto God the Father.” The same “Father of Lights” from whom all blessings did, and do, indeed flow.

But gracious gratitude was not to be limited by the circumstances of this life. To make his point Spurgeon reminded his congregation of the story of a poor “godly preacher,” who one evening could only offer his children a dinner consisting of “a potato and a herring.” Nonetheless, the preacher “thanked God that he had ransacked sea and land to find food for his children.” Truly, the God who fed the sparrows and the ravens would not forget his people.

Indeed, while God’s temporal provision was a sweet blessing, his eternal provision of salvation through Jesus Christ was beyond comparison. Even after pastoring for many years, Spurgeon still marveled that “God should condescend to make a covenant with man, and ordain faith in Jesus as the great way of obtaining reconciliation.”

Spurgeon believed that the substitutionary, penal, atoning death of Christ on the cross provided Christians cause for “daily adoration and hourly thankfulness.” In Spurgeon’s view, “since Jesus has loved us so well,” it was impossible not to “give to him all that we are, and all that we have.” As a result, Spurgeon challenged his church to “let your gratitude compel you to do everything for Jesus.”

There is much in life for which to be thankful. Family, friends, food, and the changing color of the fall leaves are sweet gifts to be savoured and enjoyed. But, the best gift to be thankful for is Jesus Christ. This Thanksgiving Spurgeon would have us contemplate Christ and let Christ “flood the whole of [our] faculties” with thankfulness.

This article was previously published by The Spurgeon Library. To read this article there or learn more about resources available through the Spurgeon Library click here.



Episode 187: Andrew Hébert on Shepherding Like Jesus

By / Nov 23

On this episode of the FTC Podcast, Jared Wilson talks with pastor and author Andrew Hébert about why more pastors don’t pastor like Jesus.



New Husbands: Farm for Joy

By / Nov 21

I recently gave the “best man speech” for one of my boyhood best friends. Instead of telling inside stories that only two people in the room understood, I wanted to give him a meaningful charge – one that he could take with him into the future. Similarly, I hope that these words will encourage other young men who are stepping into the great mystery of marriage.

The role of a husband is to cultivate joy. Notice that I did not say “conjure joy” or “create joy.” You can’t conjure or create joy any more than you can conjure or create a corn stalk in a field. But you can cultivate it. You can prepare for it, plant it, water it, feed it, protect it, and harvest it.

If you’re a husband, you’re a farmer. You’re a farmer of joy. Consider these four ways to cultivate joy in your new home.

1. The first way to cultivate joy is to sacrifice for your wife. She is worth your love, your commitment, and your many sacrifices. And there will be a lot of them. If there aren’t, you’re not doing it right. There will be small sacrifices like daily chores and dropped hobbies, and consequential sacrifices like forfeited job opportunities and friendships that wane – all because you are married to her. Let me tell you now, these sacrifices are normal and noble. A marriage is like an investment account: invest as much as you can as early as you can and as often as you can, and it will pay you back with interest. Sacrifice for your bride, and you will reap a reward of joy in the end.

2. The second way to cultivate joy is to incline yourself towards action. When an issue presents itself in your home, go about fixing it as soon as you can. When an opportunity presents itself for your family, chase after it before the moment escapes. When a mediocre day is in your midst, do your best to make it either productive or pleasant, or best of all, both. A joyful home is full of purpose and passion, neither of which will happen without action.

3. The third way to cultivate joy is to pursue children. That’s right – get on with your business! Fine, fine – take a little time if you want, but not too much. The ease of childlessness can suck you in; don’t let it get ahold of you. Of course, some couples cannot have children, and God will supply them with joy from his own bounty, even if through tears. But if you are able, you will be shocked at how much joy children can bring into your DINK life. Jerry Seinfeld was asked once if he had any regrets in life. His only answer, “I wish I had more kids.” If you want joy, then my friend, what you want is kids. Start cultivating.

4. Lastly, to cultivate joy in your home, you must have the key ingredient – the je ne sais quoi. This is a French phrase that means, “I do not know what.” The phrase is used to express the unknown essence of something that makes it so special, so distinct that it cannot be put into words. Like a key ingredient in a recipe that makes the dessert pop, but it cannot be discerned. Do you want to know the key ingredient to the joy recipe? Jesus. Jesus is the je ne sais quoi of joy. You have him, you have joy. It is as simple as that. Cultivate lots of Jesus in your new marriage.

My friend, you are starting a new chapter of life. You’re the man of your own house now. You will make your own memories and you will establish new family traditions with your new bride. But the most important thing you will do is develop a new culture. As you start this new home, farm for joy and reap the future harvest!