One Good Thing This Week
A close brother called me this week and encouraged me to KEEP GOING.
I needed it. Maybe you need it too.
For all those who are laboring, with few results, let me remind you that when William Carey set foot in India in 1793, he had to wait seven years before seeing his first convert.
Robert Morrison entered China in 1807 with the same zeal and likewise endured seven years of barren labor before baptizing one person.
Hudson Taylor arrived in Ningbo in 1854, and though he saw fruit in two years, it still required long sowing before the harvest came.
What unites most of us men is not the speed of our results but the steadfastness of our obedience. Paul’s words were at the forefront of my mind this week: "I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth" [1 Cor. 3:6–7]. Faithfulness is measured not in numbers but in trust—trust that God’s Word will not return void [Isa. 55:10–11].
The Puritan Richard Baxter once said: ''If you will do the work of Christ, do not mind the success of it. It is your duty to labor, and it is Christ’s to give the blessing." We are called to plow, to sow, to water, even when, especially when the soil looks hard and the heavens seem silent.
So, brother, keep plowing. Do not despise the days of small beginnings. Faithfulness today may not bloom tomorrow, but in God’s timing, faithfulness always leads to fruitfulness. The harvest is His. The call is yours. Keep going.
It was a good week.
Something Beautiful This Week
One of my spiritual heroes died this week. Thinking about him, I came across this video. I thank God for this man. And for what it’s worth, I don't believe the rumor.
Something Worth Imitating
Worth it…
My 3 Favorite Quotes of the Week
"You drown not by falling into a river, but by staying submerged in it." —Paulo Coelho
"I tried to drown my sorrows, but the bastards learned how to swim." — Frida Kahlo
"If you want to hate america, watch the news. If you want to love america, drive across it." —
Stat(s) I Found Heartbreaking This Week
More than 7,000 Nigerian Christians have been slaughtered by Islamists so far in 2025.
7,000. This. Is. Devastating. We need more people and churches talking about this. Far too many of us have a Stalin mentality… "A single death is a tragedy, a million deaths is a statistic."
Let it not be so.
My Favorite Pic This Week
How I stay spiritually strong…
Book(s) I Read This Week
Rereading A Tale of Three Kings over the next 10 days. It may be one of my top three books of ALL TIME. This passage alone is worth the price of admission:
"David was caught in a very uncomfortable position; however, he seemed to grasp a deep understanding of the unfolding drama in which he had been caught. He seemed to understand something that few of even the wisest men of his day understood. Something that in our day, when men are wiser still, even fewer understand.
And what was that?
God did not have - but wanted very much to have - men and women who would live in pain.
God wanted a broken vessel."
David grasped something even the wisest of his day could not see. He knew that God delights not in the unbroken, but in the contrite. "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise" [Ps. 51:17].
Men of every age have assumed that strength impresses God, that polish pleases Him, that wholeness is the goal. But the Lord says otherwise: "To this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and who trembles at my word" [Isa. 66:2].
Paul, like David, understood this paradox. Writing to the Corinthians, he confessed that God has placed His treasure in "jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us" [2 Cor. 4:7]. Weakness, not strength, is the theater where divine glory is displayed. Broken vessels leak grace.
The Puritans spoke often of a holy bruising. Richard Sibbes, in The Bruised Reed, reminds us: "Are we bruised reeds? Be of good comfort; he that bruised us will not break us." God does not crush the brokenhearted—He indwells them.
God does not ask you to put the pieces of your life together and present them as a trophy. He asks you to hand Him the shards. He wants men who will live faithfully in pain, not flee from it; who will embrace weakness, not disguise it; who will let their brokenness become an offering.
Song(s) I Listened To This Week
I've been on an Appalachian gospel kick this week. Discovered Ben Fuller. Absolute gift from above. Enjoy.
And a classic for good measure:
What God Taught Me This Week
"Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven." — Matt 6:1
I read something this week by
that cut me to my core: "The moment applause becomes your hope, generosity becomes a performance."I confess, my heart is ever tempted to trade the eternal reward of God for the fleeting breath of man. What begins as an act of worship turns into a stage play. The left hand no longer gives in secret, but trembles until the right hand is noticed.
Christ warned of this danger with striking clarity: "Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven" [6:1]. Applause is a shallow wage; it dies with the echo. But the Father’s reward is enduring, weighty, and hidden with Christ.
Richard Baxter observed, "Take heed of being actors in religion, instead of followers of Christ. Many appear to men as saints, whose hearts are filth in the sight of God." John Owen went further: "What we do in the sight of men may make us seem holy, but what we do in secret before God makes us so."
God reminded me that true faithfulness is not a performance but a participation in God’s own character. The applause of men is a gust of wind, but the smile of God is an everlasting sun. Too often, I am chasing the wind.
Lord, forgive me.
Looking to connect in person? Here are some places I’ll be in the next few weeks:
Men’s Night, First Baptist Wichita, Wichita, TX, September 28
2819 | RidgeMen’s Conference, The Ridge Community Church, Mineral Bluff, GA, October 3-4.
Brothers, my pledge to you…
"You will never suffer at my hands. I will never say nor do anything knowingly to hurt you. If you're down and I can lift you up, I'll do that. I will always, in every circumstance, seek to help and support you. If you need something and I have it, I'll give it to you. No matter what I find out about you, no matter what happens in the future, either good or bad, my commitment to you will never change."
For the King,
—Harp