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May 24, 2023

Leadership Notes

Two simple things today {or maybe three; I don’t know yet}.

First, can you guess who said this? It’s from May 10, 2023:

“When we’re trying to make up for our sins, what we’re really saying is, ‘Jesus didn’t finish everything on the cross. I’ve got to pay for this one.’ The truth is your blood wouldn’t do any good. It was the spotless sinless blood of the lamb that paid the price in full.”

By my reckoning, that is some solid, biblical, Reformed theology there.

Second, Tim Keller, Presbyterian Church in America pastor, leading light in evangelical apologetics, and prolific author {“The Reason for God” remains the most theologically useful and solid book in my library}, died last week from pancreatic cancer. Here’s a tribute from The Babylon Bee:

Tim Keller has finished the race set before him. After seventy-two years, Keller's faith became sight on May 19, 2023. To the last, Keller professed hope solely in the saving work

of Jesus Christ.

For decades, Tim Keller faithfully preached the good news of Christ's salvation to millions of souls across the planet. Achieving that level of influence did not stop Keller from publicly acknowledging that all his works were for naught without personal repentance and trust in Christ. Keller submitted to Biblical authority and ecclesiastical accountability, while steadily

offering his work in service to the Lord. He fought the good fight. The Lord saw fit to use cancer to lift the veil. The faint whisperings from another world have become clarion, and the

claims of this reality have faded evanescent. We pray in grief for his family and the loss of a brother, and we pray in the hope we share with Tim. Tim Keller has finished the race.

What a beautiful and fitting tribute. Tim Keller served the cause of Christ well.

Here’s that third simple thing I knew I might stumble across. Perhaps you’ve heard the cliché, “Happy Wife/Happy Life”? A more reasonable approach is, “Happy Wife/Miserable Life.”

If you’re still reading, here’s why. Dedicating yourself to making someone happy is how you create a terrible relationship. A good relationship comes from starting happy and sharing that happiness with your partner. It is your responsibility to choose happiness.

Speaking of happiness, here's Your Moment of Spurgeon:

“I do believe that we slander Christ when we think that we are to draw the people by something else but the preaching of Christ crucified. We know that the greatest crowd in London has been held together these thirty years by nothing but the preaching of

Christ crucified. Where is our music? Where is our oratory? Where is anything of attractive architecture, or beauty of ritual? ‘A bare service,’ they call it. Yes, but Christ makes up for all the deficiencies.”

Yours in this Great Faith,

Richard

*{Joel Osteen}