When We Need STRENGTH to STAND…
Friends! How about a good ole’ shot in the arm to get you thru’ the holidays? Is Thanksgiving really right around the corner, followed by Christmas???
I’ve got great news for you! HELP is on the way…
This week we’ll get to hear from some legendary preachers, authors, and missionaries who will share from their lives how they’ve managed to stand and survive our crazy world. Some of these giants include:
John Piper,
Jerry Bridges,
John MacArthur,
Randy Alcorn, and
Helen Roseveare …
Here’s the resource for you:
STAND: A CALL FOR THE ENDURANCE OF THE SAINTS by John Piper and Justin Taylor (General Editor)
Right off the bat, we readers learn the goal of this book, thanks to John Piper’s father, who even during his final years of dementia, rejoiced in his journal:
Justin Taylor, the general editor of the book, is who is writing this in the Intro’, tells us, “One of the purposes of the book you hold in your hands is to encourage you and to equip you to truthfully write such a sentence as John’s father did—and mean it—in the final season of your life.”
Let’s repeat that and perhaps pray that sentence for ourselves: “The Lord is more precious to me the older I get.” Amen.
Hebrews 12:1-2 can be our verse to coach us:
Now what’s fun is we get to sit at the feet of these legendary folks who’ve really lived life, with decades of experience, literally running with Jesus. They gift us with their life lessons so we may come to adopt their same perspectives.
Jerry Bridges, who died at 86 years of age in 2016, has authored many books….In his chapter, he gifts us readers with four “foundational and fundamental actions that will enable us to fight the good faith and to finish well.” One of the four (you’ll have to read the book to get the other three!) is: “a daily time of focused personal communion with God.”
John Piper, who’s now seventy-eight and still going strong, shows us how to get old “to the glory of God.” The KEY, he says, “is to grow old in a way that makes God (and not the world) look glorious and all-satisfying. But the obstacle toward this goal is the fear of not maintaining a treasuring of Christ.” He gifts us with two common strategies to overcome that fear, and my friend, I’m so predictable—you’ll have to read the book to learn these!
John MacArthur, who’s now eighty-five has studied the life of the Apostle Paul his whole life. He reveals nine points just from 2 Corinthians such as “the necessity of a pure heart and the reality that ministry is a mercy.” (The other seven you get to hunt for yourselves. Smile. There is a pattern here…)
Randy Alcorn, now seventy, takes us on one of his very own difficult journeys, showing us how they’ve persevered in a trial. You’ll find his story remarkable and encouraging. One of many pearls of wisdom he offers us is this: “Who you become is the product of the daily choices you make—what you daily choose to delight in and meditate upon.” He closes the chapter with an unknown-but-moving story about Jim Elliot’s brother.
Helen Roseveare died at ninety-one in 2016. Unfamiliar with her and her missionary life, I was wow-ed from the get go and later learned of another book by her, Give Me This Mountain.
Here’s a pic of the cover of her book:
Helen seems to be the most resilient person I’ve recently encountered. Her determination in the depths of mounting challenges—crazy travel to Africa, horrible illnesses, too many people and administrative aspects to coordinate, and on and on, lead her to conclude that “one thing” is her ultimate M.O.
She takes it one step further to show us the past, the present and the future of her life via Scripture where it says, “one thing I know,” from John 9:25 that says,
“Whether he is a sinner I do not know. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, but now I see.”
Then we see Philippians 3:13 for “one thing I do” which says,
“One thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead…”
And third, “one thing I ask” from Psalm 27:4 which says,
“One thing I have asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in His temple.”
The icing on the cake follows these five chapters with two interviews: one with Randy, Jerry, John Piper and Helen, followed by another one with John Piper and John MacArthur. Justin does the interviewing and you’ll love his questions to these inspiring folks along with their very honest answers. You’ll find many more pearls to take home…
Finally, you may wonder how I choose which book to write about from time to time… I wonder that too! I generally have a pile to choose from, BUT….the wildest thing happened when John and I were last in Naples a couple of weeks ago.
We went to Covenant Presbyterian and lo and behold, on the cover of the program were the words “Stand Firm.” The sermon’s title was “Stand Firm in the Armor of God” with the Scripture coming from Ephesians 6:13-20.
Pastor Trent’s message goes hand in hand with our book, Stand: A Call for the Endurance of the Saints. Thus, that’s how I landed on sharing this book with you this week. I believe you’ll return to it numerous times.
Helen actually closes her chapter with the reminder that “it’s a privilege to share Jesus with others—let us all ‘take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having all to stand firm.’” (From Ephesians 6:13)
She adds,
At the end of the second interview, Justin asks John Piper if he’ll close out their session with a prayer. It’s so beautiful I’d like to close with it so you may enjoy it also (and you’ll never think of “mercy” the same way again!) :
“Father in heaven, we feel a great need for you, and we love grace. We love mercy. We love the fact that our ministry is given by mercy, our salvation is given by mercy, our breath is given by mercy, our singleness is given by mercy, our marriage is given by mercy, and our children are given and taken by mercy. We are a people who eat and drink and sleep and breathe mercy. And this is the way we would have it be. You exalt yourself to show mercy. And we are happy to be the beneficiaries while you get the Glory and you get the praise and you get the fame. We get the joy. Through Christ I pray. Amen.”
I pray you and your family and friends have a most blessed Thanksgiving!
‘Til next time!
P.S. A great follow-up book to Stand: A Call for the Endurance of the Saints would be Whatever Happens: How to Stand Firm When Your World is Falling Apart by Robert J. Morgan. I reviewed it back in August and here’s the link to it. See what you think!
Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the page above are “affiliate links.”