A Word to the Wise: Ken Sande
 
One of the best ways to improve your relationships is to develop the habit of drawing attention to EGGs. Not the ones you cook or search for at Easter, but the innumerable Evidences of God’s Grace that he lavishes on you and those around you … and calls you to recount to others.

Ken Sande, 4.16.25, One Simple Habit That Transforms Relationships

A Word to the Wise:
 
The Bible calls us to be transformed by the renewal of our minds. This is a better framework for thinking about the Bible than "applying" its principles to our lives.
 
I believe there's a better word than "apply," and that's "transform." In fact, I can't think of any passage in the Bible that instructs us to apply the Bible to our lives as I have described it above. It's simply not the verb used. Sometimes, we are called to hear, obey, and keep God’s commands. At other times, there are other words like "being transformed from one level of glory to another" or "growing in knowledge," and such words name the general way in which we grow in the word.
 
What's a better general term than application? I believe we need to consider the words "contemplation" and "transformation." When you contemplate the Bible, you reflect on what it says so that it can transform you from the inside out. This aligns with how the Bible talks about transformation. For example, Romans 12 says, "Don't be conformed to the world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind."
 
What happens is that when you reflect on Scripture, you contemplate in your mind what is being said about reality, and you come to know what is true about reality—whether that's about yourself or the world around you.
 
So rather than asking, "How do I apply this Bible passage to my life?" we might ask, "How does contemplating this truth transform how I see reality?" When we do this, the Bible doesn't become a manual for extracting principles; it becomes a lens through which we see the world as it truly is—created, fallen, and being redeemed by God.
 
Through contemplation, the Bible transforms us from the inside out, renewing our minds and changing how we interact with everything from the stars above to the miracle of new life.
I am not saying “applying” the Bible is bad. I simply think there is a better way to generalize what we are doing when we read the Bible to know God. We read to be transformed from the inside out by what we have contemplated in his word and world.
​
Wyatt Graham, 4.2.25, Don’t Apply the Bible to Your Life. Do This Instead. (One of Trevin’s Seven, 4.11.25)

A Word to the Wise: A Simple Truth to Fight Temptation (Chuck Lawless)

Here is the way Jesus taught us to pray about temptation: “And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one” (Matt 6:13). Albert Mohler, my president for many years when I served at Southern Seminary, notes these conclusions about this text:

• First, we must recognize that temptations are a real, daily threat to our life with Christ. 
• Second, we must understand that we are not able to resist temptation by our own power. 
• Third, we must pray for endurance in the fight against temptation. 
• Fourth, we must pray that the Lord delivers us from our own personal patterns of temptation. 

What most catches my attention, though, is that Jesus taught us to pray about temptation before we get into it.

Chuck Lawless, 3.28.25, A Simple Truth to Fight Temptation 

A Word to the Wise: The Trinity and Prayer
 
This Trinitarian mutuality impacts public prayer in two ways. First, each member of the Trinity is intimately involved in the very act of praying. As the old saying goes, we pray to the Father, through the Son, by the power of the Spirit. Paul Miller helpfully elaborates on the mysterious Trinitarian interplay in the act of praying:

Even now I often don’t realize that I am praying. Possibly, it isn’t even me praying, but the Spirit. Paul said, “God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’” (Galatians 4:6). The Spirit is not assisting us to pray; he is the one who is actually praying. He is the pray-er. More specifically, it is the Spirit of his Son praying. The Spirit is bringing the childlike heart of Jesus into my heart and crying Abba, Father. Jesus’s longing for his Father becomes my longing. My spirit meshes with the Spirit, and I, too, begin to cry, Father
(A Praying Life).
 
While Miller is talking about the Trinity moving us in personal prayer, the same is true in public prayer. The Holy Spirit moves leaders to prepare and pray Christlike prayers to the Father on behalf of his gathered children.
​
Pat Quinn, Crossway, 4.1.25, Prayer Is and Should Be Trinitarian

A Word to the Wise
 
Discipleship isn’t just about teaching someone to live like Jesus—it’s also about helping them lead like Jesus.
 
Too often, we overcomplicate leadership development. But when you strip it down, it's simpler than we think—and far more powerful when we make it personal.
 
Here are three practical ways to put it into practice starting today:
 
1. Ask more, tell less. Instead of always giving answers, start asking better questions. Jesus rarely just “told” His disciples what to do—He asked questions that made them think.
 
2. Invest in the few to impact the many. Jesus spent most of His time with 12 people. He knew that multiplying leaders happens best through deep relationships, not big events.
 
3. Teach people to see decisions as discipleship. Every decision a leader makes is a chance to grow in wisdom, faith, and character. Helping someone make better decisions is one of the best ways to disciple them.
Discipling leaders isn’t about filling their heads—it’s about forming their hearts.
Mac Lake, 3.17.25, Leadership Development Isn’t Complicated – It’s Discipleship

A Word to the Wise
 
Discipleship isn’t just about teaching someone to live like Jesus—it’s also about helping them lead like Jesus.
 
Too often, we overcomplicate leadership development. But when you strip it down, it's simpler than we think—and far more powerful when we make it personal.
 
Here are three practical ways to put it into practice starting today:
 
1. Ask more, tell less. Instead of always giving answers, start asking better questions. Jesus rarely just “told” His disciples what to do—He asked questions that made them think.
 
2. Invest in the few to impact the many. Jesus spent most of His time with 12 people. He knew that multiplying leaders happens best through deep relationships, not big events.
 
3. Teach people to see decisions as discipleship. Every decision a leader makes is a chance to grow in wisdom, faith, and character. Helping someone make better decisions is one of the best ways to disciple them.
 
Discipling leaders isn’t about filling their heads—it’s about forming their hearts.
​
Mac Lake, 3.17.25, Leadership Development Isn’t Complicated – It’s Discipleship

A Word to the Wise
 
Gallup identified four key expectations followers have of their leaders. They need leaders to provide hope, trust, compassion, and stability.
 
Pastors and other leaders often feel responsible for providing countless benefits to those under their care. But what is it people actually need from those leading them?
 
Gallup released the “Global Leadership Report: What Followers Want” report after conducting a worldwide study to discover the types of leaders with the most positive influence on people’s daily lives and the most dominant need among followers.
 
Gallup asked respondents to list three words that best describe what their most positive leader contributes to their life. Using this open-ended question in multiple leadership studies in the U.S. and additional countries, Gallup identified four key expectations followers have of their leaders. They need leaders to provide hope, trust, compassion, and stability.
 
Of those four, followers most need hope. Of all the attributes individuals list about their most impactful positive leader, 56% are tied to hope, particularly attributes of inspiration, vision, and personal integrity.
 
Additionally, however, pastors should be inspiring people with a positive vision for the future of the church, overcoming obstacles to trust, displaying compassion for the needs of their people, and serving as an example of stability in times of chaos.
Pastors cannot generate these feelings in and of themselves, but as they lean on Christ, He can ensure the congregation has their leadership needs fully met.
​
Aaron Earls, Lifeway Research, 3.7.25, What do people want most from their leader? Hope
 

A Word to the Wise by Paul Tripp
 
Suffering Is Never Neutral
We never suffer only the thing we are suffering; we also always suffer the way we are suffering. We never come to our suffering empty-handed. We always drag a bag full of experiences, expectations, assumptions, perspectives, desires, intentions, and decisions into our suffering.
 
Thus, our lives are shaped not only by what we suffer but by also what we bring to our suffering. How we think about ourselves, life, God, and others will profoundly affect the way in which we think about, interact with, and respond to the difficulties that come our way.

​Fight the Enemy by Counting Blessings
When we are suffering, we must force ourselves to pay attention to our private conversation, that is, the words we say to ourselves that no one else hears. We are always talking to ourselves about ourselves, life, God, others, meaning and purpose, relationships, trouble, solutions, hope, the past, the future, and so on. Because of this constant internal conversation, we influence ourselves more than anyone else does, since we hear what we ourselves have to say more than we hear anyone else. But every sufferer must ask, ‘Has my suffering caused me to begin to believe things that are not true and therefore to say to myself things that are not true?’ We need to question our own assumptions. We need to argue with our own hearts. We need to confront evidences of unbelief in our private conversation.
 
There is no more powerful tool against debilitating doubt than gratitude. It is exactly at the point where we are tempted to doubt our blessings that counting our blessings is the most important. A thankful heart is the best defense against a doubting heart. Recounting evidences of God’s presence, his grace, his faithfulness to his promises, his provision, and the reliability of what he has told us in his Word reminds us of God’s goodness—and, because it does, it protects us against the lies that tempt us to deem him as less than good.
 
No matter how difficult or long-lasting our suffering may have been, there are blessings to be found.
 
Our battle is not merely the difficult thing we are facing but also encompasses the impact of the difficulty on our hearts.
​
Paul Tripp, 3.1.25, excerpts from “Grace + Knowledge: When Suffering Knocks”

A Word to the Wise: www.KarlVaters.com
 
Here’s a simple piece of advice for my generation of seasoned pastors. If you want to make your Sunday messages more effective for how people live and listen today, do this one thing: Stop making your sermon notes rhyme or alliterate.
 
Rhymes and alliterations used to make speakers seem credible, authoritative, and prepared. That’s no longer the case.
​
Hey Boomer, Stop Making Your Sermon Notes Rhyme Or Alliterate, Karl Vaters, 2.17.25

A Word to the Wise: Evangelism for Everybody
 
My mentor in the ministry, Matt Queen, has a simple evangelism strategy that anyone can do, which begins by asking, “Has anyone told you God loves you today?” Inevitably, the answer is no, at which point you can ask to be the first and say, “God loves you so much that He sent His one and only Son to live a perfect life for you, die a sacrificial death for you, rise victoriously for you, and save you if you turn to Him in faith. Would you like to hear more about that today?” If they do, go for it. If not, you leave them with a gospel tract, information about your church, or even your contact information if they have questions later.
 
I began sharing that strategy from the pulpit and during other teaching opportunities, and our people got after it. In fact, during Easter, one of our members went to the grocery store next to the church and asked the cashier if anyone had told her God loves her, and the cashier said, “Actually, yes! Someone from that church (she pointed toward our building) was just here and told me, and I plan on coming this Sunday.” Story after story started coming in, and fast. I’d often share some of them from the pulpit with encouragement to keep up the good work.
 
By the end of the year, we were averaging almost 400 people in gathered worship and had seen over 80 decisions of some kind. Now, instead of starting with a handful of folks committing to a big training and weekly visitation, we have hundreds of folks taking the gospel with them as they go, wherever they go, and God is blessing their faithfulness abundantly.
Matt Henslee, Pastor, Plymouth Park Baptist Church, Irving, TX, Baptist Press, 2.13.25, Evangelism for Everybody, https://www.baptistpress.com/resource-library/bptoolbox/evangelism-for-everybody/