I'll Be Honest

For those who are falling into sexual sin, the root cause is that they've opened a door for it somewhere in their life. They must be violent and close the door they've opened to allow this sin in. They must not be passive when it comes to putting sin to death. In the New Testament; the attitude is a radical, militant killing of it.

If I could speak to a younger version of myself I would say, "Mack, you are not ready to preach yet, don't start.” I wasn't ready to preach, I was a novice. Don't rush into the ministry, instead young believers should seek to cultivate real faithfulness. They should seek to pray and walk with God on a deeper level. While you are single and in your youth, seek to use your time to read and know the Bible.

As a husband, you need to keep dating your wife; that is intentionally spending quality time together in order to maintain the freshness of the marriage.

Pastoral ministry is a very difficult calling. In this interview, Geoff Thomas gives some practical helps and lessons from his 50 years of Christian ministry.

Outline of questions and at what time they asked in the video:

00:01 - You pastored one church for 50 years in Wales, what was the most difficult aspect of the ministry for you?

03:19 - If you could do it all over again, what would be the things that you would change or do differently?

06:17 - In your own personal walk with Christ, what can you look back on and say you wish you had done differently?

08:48 - How can a pastor deal with discouragement when he has to keep preaching through times of difficulty?

13:02 - If you go back in time to the first day of your ministry, and speak to a young Geoff Thomas, what would you tell him and most stress to him?

15:33 - At the prayer meeting on Wednesday night, you mentioned that there were some areas in your life that you felt like were really critical to not let slip. What areas were you referring too and what are you doing to not slip in those areas?

19:40 - What are the dangers confronting the church today, especially the reformed church?

24:44 - What book or person has made a great impact on your life and why?

29:28 - How did you remain a baptist while in Westminster Seminary?

In this interview, Justin talks about his conversion and gives a testimony of how the Lord saved him. Then, he discusses that when he got exposed to Biblical doctrine he ended up leaving his church. Once in this situation, he could not find a like-minded church and therefore wrestled with either relocating to join another church, or planting a church.

"To avoid burnout in the ministry, pastors need to know how to pace themselves and also intentionally take breaks and rest. We must not look at rest, breaks, or vacations as being unspiritual. Rather, they are essential and necessary for longevity and more fruitfulness for the long term." - Mack Tomlinson

Humility is a vital characteristic of the Christian life. If we would keep from falling away, and if we desire to have healthy churches, we must cultivate and attain this blessed virtue.

God is completely satisfied with what the Lord Jesus Christ has done. The question is...are you?

Do Calvinists tend to be unloving and mean? Are there things in the Christian life that are more important than being absolutely precise in every area of theology?

What should we think of a 14-year-old who is being heavily accused of characteristics that resemble a Pharisee? What could be the cause of this? Is this persecution, or could there be some validity to these accusations?