Grant Us Wisdom

"I believe that today's lack of interest in guidance to God has resulted in a lot more questions about how to seek guidance from God. We simply don't know God as well as previous generations of believers did and . . . guidance from God is rooted in our knowledge of him. The more one knows of God's character and desires, the better one can live to be conformed to the image of Christ--and make the many daily decisions that must be made." (pp.19-20)

So writes James C. Petty in his book Step by Step: Divine Guidance for Ordinary Christians, published in '99 by P&R. I read this book earlier this year, and I benefited from it in many ways, not the least of which was the appendix that helps you assess your priorities in hourly, daily, and monthly life.

Overall, the book is well-worth reading, and I would give it a grade of 7.8/10 (9's and 10's are hard to come by with me). I found it a little uneven at times; some chapters (8, 11) are simply excellent, and other parts of the book are just ok. Here are some highlights . . .

Thesis: "we come to know the will of God by discernment, wisdom, and insight. The purpose of this book is to show that the Bible's answer to our need for guidance boils down to one very rich word: wisdom." (135)

"The path of wisdom is a lifestyle of repentance from serving functional gods like security, safety, control of situations, pleasure, power, ease, avoidance of pain, and approval. God will systematically expose any such rivals in our hearts that divert us from loving and worshiping him. We must be prepared for that and even search out such duplicity in our hearts." (179)

"The inordinate pursuit of entertainment can easily compete with the pursuit of wisdom." (185)

All in all, this book about wisdom is written by a wise man. Learn from him if you get the chance.

A Unique Conference

For parts of the past 3 days, I have enjoyed attending the "Promoting the Gospel" Conference at LaGrange Baptist Church, 25 miles outside of Louisville, KY. I have attended conferences before. At T4G (Together for the Gospel) last year, I joined about 5,000 other believers as we sat under good teaching and sang our hearts out together. I have been to the annual conference of the Christian Counseling and Education Foundation outside of Philadelphia, where several thousand of us were priviledged to hear Ed Welch talk about fear, worry, and the God of rest. This was different . . .

Two days ago, on Monday, I pulled up to the church just a few minutes before the start of the first session; regular registration was about to be over. I pulled into the parking lot of the beautiful LaGrange Baptist building and only saw about 10 other cars! What was this?? Well, to cut to the chase, there were 20-25 men in attendance at the conference this week. Aside from the free night sessions, where about 50 people from the church showed-up, we spent our day sessions in the youth room of the church building--just 20 pastors (I was one of the few men there who is not currently serving in a pastoral capacity), Tony Rose (LaGrange head pastor), Paul David Tripp, and Justin Taylor.

I'm glad that I attended this conference. Most of the men, including myself, were greatly surprised at the turnout; why shouldn't we be with the caliber of speakers and the incredible marketing that LaGrange had undertaken to promote the conference? Nevertheless, the smallness of the gathering was to our benefit. We had an intimate time with the speakers, with each other, and with the gracious God of the gospel.