“Stable emotional life”

Introduction to Recommended Resources for Emotional Stability

0:04 And what I'd like to do is to, first of all, make a few recommendations of some books and tapes that you may be familiar with. Some of you may not, but I think they will be of particular help with reference to some of the things that we've been dealing with. A recent booklet by the Banner of Truth Trust, Behind the Frowning Providence by John J. Murray.

Navigating Dark Providences with 'Behind the Frowning Providence'

0:28 This is not the late Professor Murray, but this is a dear man whom I have known since 1967, a godly brother, pastor in the Free Church of Scotland. And he and his family were brought through a very dark providence in terms of the death of one of their children. And out of the matrix of God's dealings with this man and his family, he preached at one of the Leicester conferences in England. At which I was ministering several years ago.

1:02 And the sermon he preached on the providence of God in the midst of what we would call his dark dispensations of dealings with us was so helpful that he was urged to expand it and put it in written form. And the result is this lovely booklet, Behind the Frowning Providence, taken from Pauper's hymn, God Moves in Mysterious Ways, His Wonders to Perform. He plants his footsteps in the sea and rides upon the storm. And the phrase, Behind the Frowning Providence, he hides a shining face.

1:38 And I would heartily recommend this when you're struggling with emotions of grief and of fear and of wondering if God is good when unusually dark providences come upon you. This is not a book dealing with, I would call, the little hangnails of Christian experience. And an ingrown toenail. This is the kind of stuff we need when we find ourselves without an arm or a leg.

2:05 And deep and dark providences come upon us. I heartily recommend it to you. And I believe none of you will see me in the future if you have that opportunity and tell me that I overstated the worth of that book. And then, as I've interacted with some of you this weekend, it's become clear to me that one of the things that I've done, One of the doctrines that some of you need to get clearly established in your own hearts is the doctrine of adoption.

The Apex of Blessing: Sinclair Ferguson on Adoption

2:35 Adoption is the apex, the crowning blessing of all of the blessings that God confers upon disinherited sinners because of their sin and gives to them because of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I know of no author in our day who has dealt more clearly and biblically and helpfully and pastorally with the doctrine of adoption than Dr. Sinclair Ferguson in his book, Children of the Living God. And if you've never had a good dose of the doctrine of adoption, I heartily recommend this book to you.

Cultivating Spiritual Mindedness with John Owen

3:11 And then one of the groups in England has taken some of the more useful works of John Owen. And reduced them to their bare bones with a simpler vocabulary without Latin quotations and without some of Owen's sentences that run on for a page and a half strung together with hyphens and semicolons. And they've not destroyed Owen. I'm a great lover of Owen.

3:42 And if anyone in the guise of helping to make Owen more accessible changed him into someone else, I would be very distressed. But they have done a great job. And his classic work, Volume 7 on spiritual mindedness, is out in this form, thinking spiritually. And in the whole matter of developing the kind of mindset that is conducive to a stable emotional life, there's much material here that will be helpful to you.

The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment

4:12 And then, isn't this a good catchy contemporary title? Learning to be happy. You'd say, surely a Puritan didn't write that. Well, he didn't.

4:21 He did not write Learning to be Happy. This originally appeared as a treatise called The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment. That sounds more Puritanish. But again, the Puritans were realists.

4:36 They were pastors. And dealing with their people, they sought to bring the word of God to bear upon their real struggles. And people struggled with the tendency to discouragement and to be morose and heavy spirited. And Jeremiah Burroughs' classic work, The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment, now comes out in this simplified version, Learning to be Happy.

The Art of Divine Contentment, Especially in Singleness

5:00 And then this still appears in Puritan form, though much more simple in its outline and clear. And my wife and I last year, in our own devotions, read through this together and found it to be very helpful. The Art of Divine Contentment. Now, that does sound like a Puritan title.

5:18 The Art. The Spiritual Art of Learning Contentment. And it's based upon Paul's text. I have learned in whatsoever state I am therein to be content.

5:31 And I think for some of you, particularly in a state of extended singleness, one of the most difficult things is finding on the one hand contentment in the state in which God has put you in the will of God, while at the same time having wholesome contentment. And holy aspirations to see your state of singleness terminated, not by death, but by marriage.

6:01 Frankly, frankly, the most attractive single man or woman to a spiritually minded member of the opposite sex is one who has found contentment in his or her singleness and is living out his or her singleness to the hilt in the will of God. An antsy cat on the tin roof single. I would avoid like the plague. I hope you'll take the council.

6:28 So you want to be more attractive to a man or to a woman in the right sense? Then learn the art of divine contentment. It'll make you much more attractive to a spiritually minded single Christian man or woman. And then, as I indicated last night, I believe there are a number of factors that have in great measure emasculated this present generation of men.

Reclaiming Biblical Manhood

6:52 And then, as I indicated last night, I believe there are a number of factors that have in great measure emasculated this present generation of men. And then, as I indicated last night, I believe there are a number of factors that have in great measure emasculated this present generation of men. And we hardly know what it is to be a Christian man. We lack in our national and political life, as well as in almost every other theater of human existence and social structures, models of manhood.

7:08 We have no Churchill who can stand in the midst of the rubble of London and by his presence and demeanor in words stir a whole nation to rise to the occasion of the challenge of facing the German juggernaut. We have no Churchill who can stand in the midst of the rubble of London and by his presence and demeanor in words stir a whole nation to rise to the occasion of the challenge of facing the German juggernaut. We have no Churchill who can stand in the midst of the rubble of London and by his presence and demeanor in words stir a whole nation to rise to the occasion of the challenge of facing the German juggernaut. We have no Churchill who can stand in the midst of the rubble of London and by his presence and demeanor in words stir a whole nation to rise to the occasion of the challenge of facing the German juggernaut.

7:25 We have no Churchill who can stand in the midst of the rubble of London and by his presence and demeanor in words stir a whole nation to rise to the occasion of the challenge of facing the German juggernaut. to look elsewhere for them. And I heartily recommend this series by Pastor Hofstetler on the Christian man, a series brought at our men's retreat in December. Hardly a week passes that I do not have some pastoral interaction with a man in our church who points to this weekend as a radical turning point in his Christian life. And then there's also a series

7:52 by Pastor McDiarmid on a similar subject available from the Trinity Pulpit on Christian manhood, excellent material. I heartily recommend it, not only for you men, but for you women. What are you looking for in a Christian man? Well, the qualities that constitute godly manhood, you ought to know what they are and to look for them. And then for those of you

Living Godly in a Hostile Society and a Theology of Singleness

8:16 who for the most part must live out the greater part of your waking hours in a godless society, if you were not present to hear the series by my dear friend, Pastor Ted Donnelly, brought at the Southern Family Conference last year on the life of the prophet Daniel, I heartily recommend this series of tapes as setting forth Daniel as the model of a man of God living in a hostile society and living in that society to the glory of God with a good testimony. And then for any of you who've not heard the series I brought a number of years ago, I'm going to read it to you. I only recommend them not because I thought they were something so special when I gave

8:57 them, but over the years I've met many people, even some at this conference, who have said that the series on a theology of singleness have been of great help to them. And if you've not obtained those tapes and listened to them, I would urge you to do so. Many things that we'll not be able to touch upon in this question and answer session and certainly would not have been the focus of the ministry of the word. You may find it very helpful.

Conclusion: Aid for the Journey to Heaven

9:22 Well, those are some recommendations. We're not mandating that you won't get to heaven if you don't buy these things and read them or listen to them, but it may make your journey a little easier and a little smoother and a little safer. And we want to see you get to heaven as smoothly and safely as possible by the grace of God.