Growing in Christ
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A life towards pastoral calling: Final Post
11 month ago
This is the final post for this series, A Life Towards Pastoral Calling. The series was in three parts. You can read Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 on the blog. However, I’v put the full document bellow, just click on the PDF icon. I don’t think there’s much else to say here but simply that however helpful this article/series has been, it’s been exponentially helpful for my soul to write it out. This paper is largely the culmination of thinking through these things over the last 10 years, and how even still with the desire of pastoral ministry in my heart this paper’s material still is precious to my soul and breaths life to my sails. If you find it helpful, may the Lord bless you.
Book recommendations
During this series I’ve included several book suggestions at the end of each post. These are the books that have shaped my own thinking on this over the years, and I highly recommend them to other young men thinking about pastoral calling. And if you don’t like books, you’re probably not called to be a pastor. (Yes, that’s a serious comment.)
New e-book: The Fountain of Life by John Flavel
28 months ago
The aim of every Christian’s heart should treasure with increasing delight the glory of Jesus Christ in their daily life. This desire ekes through every Apostle’s writings from Paul to John. One of the best ways we can do this apart from reading and meditating on Scripture is the reading of good sermons and books about the glory of Jesus Christ. To that end, John Flavel penned (and preached) one of his most infamous and famous works, The Fountain of Life. I’ve been working through it over the last couple years (a sermon here, a sermon there) and am about to finish it. There are several sermons in it that I have starred to reread again (if not the whole thing). Flavel has served my soul immensely (and become a good friend along the way, a beloved dead-pastor). In this digital age, I thought it would be helpful to convert it into e-book format, and have made my file available here, free, at no charge. Of course, you can buy the printed volume along with the rest of his works here. But in the mean time while you’re saving up, if you have the desire to have your soul fed with grand and glorious visions of Jesus Christ, here is his Fountain of Life in e-book format. (Click the picture for download. If you have any problems, please comment.)
Notes on John Owen’s “Indwelling Sin”
31 year ago
We’re in the heat of moving into our new house, so time for posting gospel thoughts has been a little lean lately. That said, I have been able to finish compiling my underlinings, notes, and thoughts from John Owen’s Indwelling Sin in Believers. So to that effect, let me give a little note here about the book and my notes.
Owen’s works are obviously hefty and dense, but oh so rich and full of help for me. Owen has had an indelible impact upon my soul, in how I understand myself, and more importantly, how I enjoy Jesus Christ. It is for this reason that I named my first son in honor of him. His work on Indwelling Sin has been massively helpful in how I understand how sin “works” in my soul; how it deceives, how it feigns and fights, how it manifests and sneaks. But more importantly, at brilliant moments when Owen is expositing the nature of sin, he ascends into displaying the glory of God’s grace to help poor and weak sinners like us.
Here’s one of the most insightful quotes from Owen’s Indwelling Sin that I found super helpful:
Fill your affections with the cross of Christ, that there may be no room for sin. The world once put him out of the house into a stable, when he came to save us; let him now turn the world out of doors, when he is come to sanctify us. (VI:251)
A note on my file
The structure and outline of these notes comes directly from Overcoming Sin and Temptation edited by Kelly M. Kapic and Justin Taylor. The quotations largely come from The Works of John Owen: Volume VI, and are cited from that edition. My personal comments will appear at the beginning of each quote in italics. Otherwise, all bulleted marks under the outline are quotations of John Owen.
So with no more ado, here is the file of my notes and quotes. All you need to do is right click and save. Enjoy!
Picture of Owen’s Works care of Tony Reinke.
