David was anointed king of Israel in I Samuel 16. David was not given the throne until II Samuel 5-6. During the intervening period he had spears thrown at him, was chased around the wilderness by a deranged King Saul, was forced to flee from his best friend who ended up dying in battle, had one of his cities overrun by the Amalekites, and had to pretend to be mad to escape Achish King of Gath. Why did the Lord put David through all of this? Why didn’t God move him from the hills of Bethlehem straight to the throne in Jerusalem? The answer is found in II Samuel 22:5-7.

II Samuel 22 is David’s song of victory after God had delivered him from all his enemies, including King Saul. Here are verses 5-6

For the waves of death encompassed me, the torrents of destruction assailed me; the cords of Sheol entangled me; the snares of death confronted me. 

The question we all ask when bad things happen to us is why. Why does God allow the waves of death to encompass David? Why does God allow Saul to pursue him all over the Israel countryside? Why did my child get cancer? Why did I lose my job? Why did that relationship collapse? Why does my boss hate me? Why does God allow bad things to happen to us?

There are many reasons, but the primary reason bad things happen is to drive us to God. The reason God brought David through verses 5-6 is so that David would end up at verse 7:

In my distress I called upon the LORD; to my God I called. From his temple he heard my voice, and my cry came to his ears. 

The Lord wanted David to trust him and cry out to him. We are such self-sufficient creatures and so easily distracted from God that he has to use affliction, pain, grief, hardship, and misery to drive us to him. Without hardship would we ever pray with the zeal and fervor that God demands and deserves? I doubt it. Do we feel our weakness when life is easy and comfortable? No. Does our trust and dependence upon the Lord grow in times of ease? Rarely.

Moses warns of this in Deuteronomy 8. Israel is about to enter the promise land. For forty years they have depended upon God day by day (Deut. 8:1-5). He provided them with manna, kept them safe, made sure their clothes did not wear out, and gave them quail and water. Now they are about to enter a land flowing with milk and honey. A land with houses they did not build and wells they did not dig where they will eat bread without scarcity (Deut. 8:7-10) This sounds like a paradise, which it was. But paradise came with a warning:

Take care lest you forget the LORD your God by not keeping his commandments and his rules and his statutes, which I command you today, lest, when you have eaten and are full and have built good houses and live in them, and when your herds and flocks multiply and your silver and gold is multiplied and all that you have is multiplied, then your heart be lifted up, and you forget the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, who led you through the great and terrifying wilderness, with its fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water, who brought you water out of the flinty rock, who fed you in the wilderness with manna that your fathers did not know, that he might humble you and test you, to do you good in the end. Beware lest you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.’ 

When all is well we stop trusting in the Lord. Our hearts become proud. We forget we are creatures dependent on Him for daily bread. We start trusting in ourselves and believing that our own hand delivered us. God sent David around the wilderness so David would trust Him and cry out to him.

He does the same for us.  God brings distress into our lives to drive us to Him.We look at hardships, even little ones like flat tires and broken arms, as annoyances and irritations. We just need to get through them. They are like a parenthesis in our lives or a bad commercial that we endure until we get to the main show. But suffering and hardship are central to our walk with God.  In many ways, they are the main show. They are not extras or irritations, but blessings sent by God to drive us to our knees. Suffering breaks our illusion that we are strong and in control.  Without distress our prayer lives would be cliche and cold.  Without hardship we would miss God himself because we would be too self-centered to run to him.

My exhortation is simple.  The Lord wants us on our knees trusting Him because that is the best place for us to be. Without suffering we would never get there. We must learn to see difficulties, hardship, pain, distress, and suffering no matter how big or small as God’s gift to us so that we might learn to cry out to Him.

On Being a Pastor: Understanding Our Calling and Work by Derek J. Prime
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I almost gave this five stars. It is one of the best introductions to ministry in the 21st Century that I have read. Several things set this book apart from others.

First, you have two men from two different eras giving practical advice on shepherding. You get a lot of “I did it this way.” Followed by the other man saying, “But I did this way.” By setting the book up this way the reader gets a lot of specifics, but none of them are presented as “this is the way it has to be done.” The reader is thus left to sift, sort, and apply what he can to his own situation. Tons of practical suggestions without setting down a bunch of laws.

Second, they cover a lot of ground. There are your typical chapters on preaching and prayer. But there are also chapters on leadership, delegation, family, two chapters on pastoral care, and a wonderful closing chapter on the perils of ministry. The delegation chapter was one of the most practical in the book with a lot of food for thought on a subject commonly ignored in books on ministry.

Third, the entire book focuses on the holiness of the minister. From how to handle interaction with women to mistakes to Bible reading to prayer to visitation the reader is reminded that pastors must be holy.

The only weak chapter was the one on worship. The best chapter was the one on prayer.

I would highly recommend this book for all ministers, elders, and ministers in training.

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Planting, Watering, Growing: Planting Confessionally Reformed Churches in the 21st Century by Daniel R. Hyde
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a very helpful book for those who want to plant ordinary means of grace churches, churches that are centered around worship, sacraments, preaching, teaching, hospitality, long term covenantal growth, and evangelism. There is a lot of good advice in the book on how to start church plant and when not to, how a church plant should interact with the mother church and the denomination, the priority of doctrine and preaching, how to properly contextualize, how to make the church plant welcoming, what should be looked for in a church planter, etc.

They are also willing to recommend books outside the reformed tradition, such as those from the Acts29 Network or those from more seeker sensitive models.

There are of course, places I disagree. My main disagreement was the need to go over the confessions before membership.The sample list of questions for new members (p. 185-86) is daunting. My view is that a person professes faith in Christ, is baptized, and then can become a member. After that there should be systematic teaching in whatever confession the church plant adheres to. I do not think there needs to be a long process for membership. But even here the writers reminded me of the need for systematic instruction of the saints in doctrine. I would just do it post-membership.

Though my church plant is eight years old and on solid ground there are still many ideas from this book that I will try to implement at some point in the future. The book is a worthwhile read for all in the reformed tradition who want to plant churches or want to be involved in churches that are evangelical, reformed, and Biblically sensitive to the surrounding culture.

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If you read John Calvin’s Institutes and compare it modern systematic theologies (and commentaries) you will immediately notice one striking difference: Calvin preaches. Most moderns do not. They look at all the data, examine all the secondary literature, and then eventually come to a conclusion that sounds more like the outcome of a science experiment instead of arriving at a great truth about God and his world. Why is this? Why does Calvin preach in everything, his Institutes, his commentaries, his polemics, and even his letters? Why are modern men so afraid to preach? Gerald Hiestand and Todd Wilson in their little book, The Pastor Theologian,  think it is the current division between the academy and the pastorate that is in part to blame. They want to see a return to what they call an “ecclesial theologian.” Here is their description of an ecclesial theologian. I have put a few explanatory remarks in brackets. All italics are their’s. All bold is mine.