Preparing for Vacation

God, and Sovereign Grace, have blessed me with some vacation time over the next few weeks. I may update a couple times this week, but I will not actively blog again until July 13. We would appreciate your prayers for a restful vacation and for God's continued work in Sovereign Grace.

The Goal of my Personal Ministry

As a young pastor it can become easy to fall in love with the idea of being an icon of pastoral ministry. I am not sure any young church planter or lead pastor dreams of his ministry as being one of being the pastor of a small church in relative obscurity. Most of us hope for a well known preaching ministry, a rapidly expanding church, accolades from other pastor, and maybe even a couple of published and well received books. However, I am reminded that my goal should be just to fight the good fight, finish the race, and keep the faith. No matter how many people hear me preach, how many books I write, how many conferences I preach, or how big my church gets, I have not fought the good fight, finished the race, or kept the faith until that day when I close my eyes in death and open them to see the crown of righteousness which the Lord will award to me on that Day. In fact, I could never preach one conference, write one book, see my church burst with growth and I could still be one who receives the crown. Why? The crown is not given to those who are well-known but to those who are faithful, perhaps especially when said faithfulness is ministering in relative obscurity is some small church for the love of Christ's people and the glory of Christ's name.

6 For ​I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. 7 I have fought the good fight, ​I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 8 Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, ​the righteous judge, will award to me on ​that Day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.

Piper on the Prosperity Gospel

That's my King!

No Bible for show and tell!

Sadly, a court of appeals ruled that a mother could not read the Bible for show and tell during an all about me time at school. She was giving a presentation in her son's kindergarten class and wanted to read from the Bible as part of what is important to the 5 year old. However, the court ruled that reading from the Scripture would be a violation.

Read the story here.

Why I am involved in politics...

Because when government gets out of control this kind of frightening behavior begins:

Pastor told his home is no place for Bible study apart from paying large "major use" fees to county of San Diego!

Psalm 3:1-4

I was thinking about what to preach this Sunday and my son, Jared, suggested Psalm 3:1-4:

A Psalm of David, when he fled from Absalom his son.

1 O Lord, ​how many are my foes!
Many are rising against me;
2 many are saying of my soul,
there is no salvation for him in God. Selah
3 But you, O Lord, are ​a shield ​about me,
my glory, and the lifter of my head.
4 I cried aloud to the Lord,
and he answered me from his ​holy hill. Selah

He thought it would be really helpful for the church to hear about God's salvation. I couldn't be more proud of his own reflections on Scripture!

Proposition 8 Upheld!

I just heard that Proposition 8 has been upheld (praise God for that), but same sex marriages that happened prior to passage of Prop 8 will stand (talk about legal stupidity)...more information to follow.

New Supreme Court Pick Announced

President Obama has announced Sonia Sotomayor as his pick for the United States Supreme Court. Concerns have already begun being lodged about her judicial philosophy. Here is a video and a quote from two separate recent statements:



Her quote from a previous lecture found in the NY Times:

“I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life...”

Here is to hoping she turns out to be someone who often employs sarcasm!

The Death of Ralph Winter

On the day when I and a couple of Sovereign Grace guys were meeting with other men about starting a new missions training center, one of the great leaders in world missions died. Ralph Winter, the uncle of Mitch Connors a man in our church and one of the men who happened to be with me planning a new training center, died last night.

John Piper wrote a tribute to Ralph which I encourage you to read here.