In part 1 of this post, we saw that God does some of His greatest works in our lives through suffering, and we began looking at a list of seven reasons for adversity.

For a quick recap, here are the first three:

1. The glory of God
2. The growth of His servant
3. The fulfillment of God’s will

4. The focusing of priorities

During suffering, realities of life change our perspective on priorities. Suddenly, the trivial and petty things that used to mean so much to us, mean almost nothing. Through these times, God refocuses our vision and realigns our priorities with His.

Through a ministry characterized by constant adversity and suffering, Paul’s greatest desire reflected the most important priorities: “That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death” (Philippians 3:10). (more…)

Without hesitation, I can say that God has done His greatest works in my life through seasons of adversity. Sometimes, however, in moments of introspection we wonder, Why all the suffering?

I truly believe that God does far more through suffering than we see at first glance, and perhaps we will never know all the reasons and all the good that He brings through it. But, through His Word,  He makes some of His purposes clear to us. In this two-part post, I’d like to highlight seven reasons for adversity:

1. The glory of God

All of life is to be lived for this purpose. Even in adversity, God desires to be glorified. In fact, it is in these times that we can often best reflect His glory by responding in faith and trust.

“But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy. If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you: on their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified” (1 Peter 4:13-14). (more…)

Growth and victory in the Christian life is the fruit of faith. Hebrews 11 records many of the heroes of the Old Testament, and it reminds us that all of these exploits for God were accomplished “by faith.”

Faith is what enables us to live in the victorious reality of the promises of God, rather than in our feeble efforts that sooner or later bring defeat.

So, if faith is this vital to our Christian lives, how can we develop faith? (more…)

For many years, I have kept an up-to-date “prospect list” of soulwinning contacts. This list helps me follow up on people I’ve met out door knocking as well as seeing new Christians baptized, added to the church, and grounded through discipleship.

I was thrilled last summer when one of the young men on our staff caught a vision for creating an electronic prospect list. This makes it much easier to keep the list organized and updated. Over the past year, our entire staff has been using the beta version of this program, and we have found it invaluable!

Just a few weeks ago, we made this program available as an app for others through the iTunes store. It is simply called Outreach Mobile, and it comes with a set of incredibly helpful features. (more…)

One of the greatest enemies to a spirit of grace in a church is criticism—from within or without. Our carnal nature is easily drawn into defending and taking sides, but doing so breeds a spirit of defensiveness and cynicism within a church.

As a young pastor, I observed churches that had a tendency to become heavily involved (and even defined by) current issues of dispute between various Christian leaders. These were not issues of doctrine or principle, but merely disagreements and personal grievances. I determined that I didn’t want Lancaster Baptist Church to become critical of other ministries or cynical of other Bible believing churches.

Over the years, I’ve asked the Lord to help me emphasize His grace in our ministry. Following are five guidelines to help pastors develop a spirit of grace in the church: (more…)