How to Not Host a Rotting Blog

A tranquil heart gives life to the flesh, but envy makes the bones rot.  -Proverbs 14:30

Every morning several blogs, including Borrowed Light, will feature a list of recommended articles from the day before.  For a little guy like me making it on one of these lists will mean an instant boost in traffic. 

I normally get about 400-500 hits per day.  Not much, but it’s a steadily increasing number.  The few times that I have gotten a link from a certain blogger, whose name rhymes with Clem Tallies, my hit count went up to about 3000 for the day.  Not to mention gaining a handful of subscribers.  For an aspiring writer these links are important. 

One temptation that bloggers can face is to scan these recommendation links for a link to that super rad article that you posted yesterday.  (Little tip—using phrases like “super rad” in this century usually means you won’t make the list).  Every time your name is not present the temptation to envy can set in.  Why did that joker get a link but I didn’t? 

As soon as envy seeps into that little crevice in your brain from which all writing flows out of you might as well give it up and just go play Backgammon with your neighbors cat.  Envy will rot your bones.  Which of course means that it’s already rotted your flesh.  And everyone that has went to college with a guy that used to frequently set his hand on fire knows that burning flesh is really rank.  You get envy, you’ve got a stinky blog.

Envy makes you write for the wrong audience.  You start writing for the audience you wish you had instead of the audience that God has already graced you with.  You certainly don’t write for the joy of the Lord. 

And before you know it the precious audience that you did have begins to get nauseated by the smell of a rotting blog.  The life has been sucked out of your writing and so your audience begins to go where there is life.  As your numbers plummet bitterness ratchets up and your writing only gets worse.  Envy has made your blog rot into oblivion.  If, you want a rotting blog, become envious.

If you don’t want a rotting blog then you need grace to fight envy.  Here’s how:

1. Repent.  Envy is a sin.  Turn to Christ in faith and confess your sin of envy.  Get clean.
2. Love your audience.  That means your audience of One and the borrowed influence that He’s given you. 
3. Pray up.  Instead of trying to be Justin Taylor pray for him.  There are probably many days when Justin would desire a small corner in the world of the internet.
4. Trust the Lord’s sovereignty.  If you only have 7 people that visit your blog rejoice in them and trust that the audience He has given you is for your good and theirs.  In other words have a “tranquil heart”. 
5. Link to others.  And not just so you can get links back.  Fight envy with generosity.
6. Avoid a sense of entitlement.  You don’t deserve 1 person listening to you.  Influence you have is borrowed from Christ.  Enjoy whatever grace you’ve been given instead of bemoaning what you don’t have. 

Today in Blogworld 8.9.12

Can a Christian Starve to Death?

Tim Challies provides an answer to a question that I’ve pondered myself for awhile.  As always Challies is biblical and helpful (as if the two aren’t synonymous). 

Fighting Boredom with God

Jon Saunders, writing for Kevin DeYoung, gives a few tips for the dangerous sin of being bored with God.  I long for the day in heaven when articles like this are no longer necessary. 

All Refored Radio, All the Time

I am excited about the launch of RefNet, a new project sponsored by Ligonier Ministries.  I’m awaiting something like this on television to combat all the false gospels running amuck there.  (HT: Contemporary Calvinist)

Phillips’ Axioms

Dan Phillips is a great writer.  If you’ve spent any time on Pyromaniacs you probably either hate Dan or love him.  I’m in the latter category.  Here he has compiled a list of axioms.  I find them helpful. 

I’m excited about Lecrae’s new album, Gravity, which hits stores September 4th.  You can pre-order now though.  This is the first video from the new album:

Are You Prone to the Prosperity “Gospel”?

David W. Jones and Russell S. Woodbridge have served the church well by writing Health, Wealth & Happiness.  It is probably no secret to my readers and those within my church community that I absolutely abhor the prosperity “gospel”.  It’s not just some little error to be trifled with, it’s dangerous heresy that breaks people and churches.  I was even more convinced of this after reading the work of Jones and Woodbridge. 

One of the most helpful things in their book is in the conclusion they give five questions to diagnose our openness to the prosperity gospel:

1. Why does God exist and what does He control in the world?  Does God exist to serve us and grant our wishes?  Or is He about His purposes in the world?  Do I control my own future?  Or does God direct my steps?
2. What is the purpose of suffering and how do I react when I suffer?  Do you see suffering as your failure to utilize divinely designed means of blessing?  Or do you see suffering as the good purpose of God?
3. What do I deserve in life?  Do you believe you are entitled to a good life, good health, and overall success?  Or do you see that everything beyond condemnation is grace? 
4. Why did God save me?  Does He need you on His team?  Did He save you to fulfill your dreams and longings?  Or did God save you so that you might enjoy Him and extend His glory? 
5. Why do I give to God?  Do you give to get something?  Do you give out of guilt?  Or do you give out of love? 

I plan on reviewing this book tomorrow.  I can tell you today though that when I review it I am going to encourage you to buy it.  So, you can go ahead and purchase it today. 

What Are “GRACE Cards”?

One of our evangelism strategies as a church is to use “GRACE” cards.  “What is a GRACE card”, you ask?  I’m glad you asked.  Let me explain.

The concept behind a GRACE card is to bless our community.  Really the concept is to put words behind random acts of kindness.  Our church family is encouraged to take a GRACE card and to bless somebody throughout the week.  It can be as simple as buying a book of stamps or leaving quarters in a laundry machine.  Some like to purchase meals for the people behind them at a fast-food chain.  When you do this you simply leave a GRACE card. 

A GRACE card is really simple.  All it has is the word “grace” on it and then an encouragement to check out a bit.ly link.  You can see a picture of a grace card and the page that the bit.ly link leads to by going here. 

If you decide to do something similar to this with your church here are a couple of tips. 

• Make sure the people know that it’s not something that you leave with a tip.  This is when you go over the top and bless somebody
• It’s not a witness tract or a business card.  Don’t just encourage people to check out the website—bless them anonymously. 
• Stress that your goal is to do something in such a way that the person is left wondering, “Who in the world just did that for me”. 
• Make the cards glossy, simple, and inexpensive (You can get a ton of cheap business cards at various places online)
• Share ideas

Review of Pursuing Peace by Robert D. Jones

Call me a nerd but I was very ecstatic about what was going down on Tuesday evening in my little church in Northeast, Missouri.  I had been saved for a few months now and beginning to get acclimated into the church.  I could not seem to get enough of this life with other believers.  So it was only fitting that when there was something on Tuesday night that I would attend. 

That something in this instance was the quarterly church business meeting.  Boy, was I pumped!  I figured that this was were we all got together to talk about our evangelism strategies, to share about how the church was going to disciple, and to pray together for the next quarter before our next get together. 

The first 15 minutes of the business meeting weren’t so bad.  I assumed that discussing the length of tape to put around the boiler was an important side issue that we had to deal with before we could get to the good stuff.  But 30 minutes in to this thing I was painfully discouraged.  People were having conflict over silly little things.  We were discussing paint colors, carpet fibers, clock positions, and everything else that seemed to matter little compared to the gospel. 

Now we can all kind of chuckle (or perhaps lurch in our mouth) thinking about such meetings because we have been a part of them.  In fact if you have spent any time in church (more accurately any time breathing) you know that it comes with a host of conflict.  I had assumed early on that once you come to know Christ and live out your faith in the context of a local church that conflict is held to a minimum. 

Now after having served in various ministry positions for over 10 of my 31 years of life I am painfully aware of how deeply conflict is ingrained in the life of the local church.  And this is not to mention marital relationships or other familial relationships.  Nor to mention conflict with those we rub shoulders with at work, football games, school, or even the movie store. 

One thing is certain about conflict, it goes wherever sinners are.  And yet I surprisingly continue to be surprised by the painful reality of conflict.  As a pastor and writer that deals with some sort of conflict on an almost daily it can be very tempting to either ignore it or blow it out of proportion.  It can also be tempting to take a book like Robert D. Jones’ Pursuing Peace and simply toss it to the side because “I’ve heard all of this before”. 

But you probably haven’t heard it all before.  Not in this way.  That’s the thing about this book.  It is so well structured and so graceful that it makes charting the choppy waters of conflict look like smooth sailing. 

And that is what really high quality writers, actors, shortstops, etc. do.  They do their job so gracefully that everybody watching thinks, “oh that’s easy man, I think I could do that”.  And then you get a hard hit ground ball that jacks you upside the face and your realize that it’s not easy that guy was just that good.  That is what Pursuing Peace does.  It is a well written book on conflict.

Summary:

Jones states from the beginning that his goal is to “provide a step-by-step process for pursuing peace in all your relationships and to give you a tool you can use to help others” (12).  And this he does masterfully.  No faithful reader can walk away from this book and honestly say that he/she does not now know the biblical process for resolving conflict. 

And it’s not just a few theoretical steps that are divorced from grace and the gospel.  For the first few chapters Jones focuses our eyes and hearts were they really need to be; namely, on God Himself.  In doing this he also reminds us that “pursuing peace” and “having God-pleasing relationships is not a dispensable luxury” (19).  It is the Christian life. 

Jones’ process for resolving conflict is three steps.  Step One: Please God.  Step Two: Repent.  Step Three: Love the Person.  Loving the Person includes having an attitude of grace, forgiving, confronting, and serving.  The book is structured around expounding each of the steps in this process. 

My Take:

For me the first two chapters became like watching a graceful shortstop.  I was tempted to just skim through the book, do my obligatory review, and move on trying to wade through the conflict in my life.  But something happened in chapter three.  Chapter 3 was like a play that makes Sportscenter and makes you simply marvel.  Afterwards you aren’t thinking, “oh I could do that”.  Your thinking, “wow, if I want to be a good shortstop I better study this dude”. 

That’s what happened to me after chapter 3.  I realized the beauty and the simplicity of conflict.  It’s really something that is a “duh”.  All we can really control in our conflicts is pleasing God.  And that is what is to be our central aim.  If I focus on pleasing God it may not solve the conflict but it will make me a faithful disciple and that’s the biggest goal anyways.  It puts your focus in the correct place. 

Robert D. Jones does exactly what he set out to do.  He provides a clear and biblical process for pursuing peace in the midst of conflict and he provides a helpful tool that can easily be reproduced. 

Should You Buy It?

Absolutely.  This is and Ken Sande’s The Peacemaker are two vital books for Christian ministers.  They are also books that ought to be in the home of every believer.  Personally, I plan on reproducing this material and taking a group of people through it. 

You can buy it here.