Encouragement: Adrenaline for the Soul

By Mark Chanski

In a crisis, the body’s burst of adrenaline can boost the average person’s physical abilities, so that a man is able to lift a car off a trapped bicyclist and a mother can fight off a polar bear threatening her son.

Author Mark Chanski makes the case that encouragement is able to do emotionally and psychologically for the soul what adrenaline does for the body. While Christians are sometimes reluctant to offer encouragement, we must do so in order to love our neighbors as ourselves. Building on the foundation of the gospel as the ultimate encouragement from God, the author—using quotations, historical references, illustrations, and examples—sets forth the Christian’s obligation to offer encouragement and then shows us how we can be encouraging in our families, in our churches, and in the world.

Table of Contents:
1. The Exhilaration of Encouragement
2. The Obligation of Encouragement
3. Some Direct Expressions of Encouragement
4. Some Subtle Expressions of Encouragement
5. The Gospel as the Ultimate Encouragement
6. The Personal Disinclinations to Encouragement
7. The Social Discinclinations to Encouragement
8. The Marriage Implications of Encouragement
9. The Parenting Implications of Encouragement
10. The Church and Therapeutic Encouragement
11. The Church and Strategic Encouragement
12. The Companion of Encouragement
13. The Disposition of Encouragement
14. The Expansion of Encouragement

• Language: English
• Publisher: Reformation Heritage Books
• Release date: Aug 7, 2019
• ISBN: 9781601786630

Book preview

ENCOURAGEMENT

Adrenaline for the Soul

Mark Chanski

Reformation Heritage Books

Grand Rapids, Michigan

Encouragement

© 2019 by Mark Chanski

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. Direct your requests to the publisher at the following addresses:

Reformation Heritage Books

2965 Leonard St. NE

Grand Rapids, MI 49525

616–977–0889

[e-mail]

www.heritagebooks.org

Printed in the United States of America

19 20 21 22 23 24/10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked ESV are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright ©2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked NASB are from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

All emphases in Scripture quotations have been added by the author.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Chanski, Mark, author.

Title: Encouragement : adrenaline for the soul / Mark Chanski.

Description: Grand Rapids, Michigan : Reformation Heritage Books, 2019. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2019016241 (print) | LCCN 2019019986 (ebook) | ISBN 9781601786630 (epub) | ISBN 9781601786623 (pbk. : alk. paper)

Subjects: LCSH: Encouragement—Religious aspects—Christianity.

Classification: LCC BV4647.E53 (ebook) | LCC BV4647.E53 C43 2019 (print) | DDC 248.4—dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019016241

For additional Reformed literature, request a free book list from Reformation Heritage Books at the above regular or email address.

Pastor Mark Chanski provides for us a resounding, irrefutable case for encouraging one another in the Lord Jesus Christ. I challenge you to read it and then go out to encourage others as Jesus and the biblical saints as well as great stalwarts in church history commonly did.

—Joel R. Beeke, president, Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary, Grand Rapids, Michigan

This book brings both relief and instruction. It immediately relieves the imbalance of negativity that so many of us carry around in our souls while also teaching us how to be ministers of joy and encouragement to one another in the body of Christ. These are good things. My dear friend has given us a much-needed breath of fresh air.

—Gary Hendrix, pastor for forty-nine years of Grace Reformed Baptist Church, Mebane, North Carolina

Whether we’re willing to admit it or not, we all love to be praised and commended. But should we withhold words of encouragement to prevent others from being puffed up? This book calls believers to replace the critical spirit with biblical words of affirmation in order to ‘consider one another in order to stir up love and good deeds’ (Heb. 10:24). It urges the people of God to actively and joyfully live out the scriptural command to ‘comfort each other and edify one another’ (1 Thess. 5:11). At its core, this book is a challenge to imitate the grace and mercy that we ourselves have received from our Lord Jesus Christ.

—Kate Motaung, author of A Place to Land: A Story of Longing and Belonging

Want to learn how to be like God? Then learn how to be an encourager. With God’s blessing, this wonderful book will not only transform your view of God but it will transform you into His likeness and transform your relationships with others. Practical theology at its best!

—David Murray, professor of Old Testament and practical theology, Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary

What a wonderful, motivating treatment of the much-neglected and yet extremely important subject of biblical encouragement! Not only will you be helped by reading this but others will be helped because you did.

—Jeffery Smith, pastor of Emmanuel Baptist Church, Coconut Creek, Florida

Our Lord and His apostles were at pains to motivate their friends by great positive encouragement, and it is this rich seam that Mark Chanski mines in this important book. One prominent feature of vibrant contemporary congregations is that they are fellowships of encouragement, and one means of attaining this blessing will be the thoughtful study of this book.

—Geoff Thomas, pastor for fifty years of Alfred Place Baptist Church, Aberystwyth, Wales

This exhilarating, gospel-centered book is a must-read for the body of Christ that at times, sadly, has been labeled as a group that ‘shoots its own wounded.’ This Scripture-saturated, grace-filled volume is a wonderful corrective for the church and with the blessing of God can be a powerful catalyst to positively transform local assemblies into places where healthy biblical encouragement is more the rule than the exception. I highly recommend it.

—Rob Ventura, pastor of Grace Community Baptist Church, North Providence, Rhode Island

Encouragement is a gracious gift to be recognized, developed, and—I have no doubt—encouraged. It might sound slightly different in different cultures and places, but it is a holy skill worth learning and using. Surveying principles and practices, Mark Chanski provides us with earnest and thoughtful encouragements to become encouragers. If you are starved of encouragement yourself or if you have starved others of it, then this book will point you in a healthier, holier, and happier direction.

—Jeremy Walker, pastor of Maidenbower Baptist Church, Crawley, United Kingdom

To my departed brother Ted Christman, that St. Bernard of a man who, like a big, thick, furry-coated dog wearing a collar with a barrel flask full of restoring medicinal swallows, bounded through the snowdrifts toward us with timely expressions of encouragement when our fainting souls needed it most.

CONTENTS

Preface

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1. The Exhilaration of Encouragement

2. The Obligation of Encouragement

3. Some Direct Expressions of Encouragement

4. Some Subtle Expressions of Encouragement

5. The Gospel as the Ultimate Encouragement

6. The Personal Disinclinations to Encouragement

7. The Social Disinclinations to Encouragement

8. The Marriage Implications of Encouragement

9. The Parenting Implications of Encouragement

10. The Church and Therapeutic Encouragement

11. The Church and Strategic Encouragement

12. The Companion of Encouragement

13. The Disposition of Encouragement

14. The Expansion of Encouragement

Scripture Index

PREFACE

This book is filled with quotations, historical references, illustrations, and examples related to the virtue of giving encouragement. Such allusions are not blanket endorsements of anyone’s entire life or body of work. Winston Churchill, for example, is cited as a noble model of encouragement for the United Kingdom in its darkest hour. But this does not deny that Prime Minister Churchill was a historical figure riddled with flaws in both lifestyle and creed. Nobility and wisdom can and should be recognized even in defective people.

The writer to the Hebrews in chapter 11, his spiritual hall of fame, praises virtue and nobility in such dubious characters as Barak, Samson, and Jephthah, even though they did things that make us wince and blush (v. 32). Even the more high-profile patriarchs referenced there, like Noah (v. 7), Abraham (v. 8), Jacob (v. 21), and David (v. 32), who are lifted up as our spiritual models, have stories checkered with foolish, shameful, and questionable exploits. Did I mention Rahab the harlot (v. 31)?

On Mars Hill Paul used inspiring quotations from two insightful Greek poets—Epimenides the Cretan and Aratus the Cilician.1 But neither of them were orthodox and safe guides theologically or philosophically. In teaching His disciples about the virtue of discerning foresight, even our Lord Jesus references the example of an unrighteous steward (Luke 16:1–13). When urging them to persistence in prayer, He cites the behavior of an unjust judge (18:1–8).

In keeping with this teaching style, the Puritans unapologetically made ample references to noble traits in questionable characters such as Alexander the Great, Aristotle, and Julius Caesar. The Puritans heartily recognized these figures’ sparks of greatness without endorsing their entire careers.

It is in this healthy tradition that I have made ample use of fallen humanity. We are all broken toys on this Island of Misfits, and none of us can be lifted up as unqualified paragons of excellence. There is only One who is good and needs no qualification (Mark 10:18).

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1. F. F. Bruce, The Book of the Acts, rev. ed., The New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2008), 359–60.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The Lord has been so gracious to give me many wise counselors and helpers who have directly assisted me in the writing and publishing of this book. I can mention only a few.

Rob Ventura, who early on told me that the encouragement theme was crucial and helped push open some doors; Kevin Filcik, my fellow pastor, who has been a more encouraging friend to me than Samwise Gamgee to Mr. Frodo; Dr. Joel Beeke, who gave a green light to edit and publish a manuscript that still needed work; David Woollin, whose savvy advice and counsel have been priceless to me; Jay Collier, who kindly worked through a number of viewpoint differences with grace and tenderness; Annette Gysen, who loved me as a gifted editor by giving me the faithful blows of a friend, making the book much better; Gary Hendrix, my highly esteemed brother and mentor, who read through an early version, told me it was a bull’s-eye theme, yet gave me better aim on an important area; Jared Chanski, our firstborn son, who untied a Gordian knot in reorganizing some chapter snags that had left me with writer’s block; Calvin Chanski, our second-born son, who persuaded me to rewrite the crucial opening chapter according to his new and improved blueprint; Austin Chanski, our third-born son, whose three children have qualified me to write with experience on grandparenting; Nathan Chanski, our fourth-born son, who designed the cover that made me laugh with Eureka delight when I first saw it; Abigail Chanski, our only daughter, whose encouraging personality epitomizes what this book is all about; and Dianne, my intelligent, beautiful, and servant-hearted Abigail, who does good to me all the days of her life, and frequently endured my writer’s preoccupied thoughts and blank stares out the windows.

INTRODUCTION

Let there be something of benevolence, in all that I speak.

—Jonathan Edwards, 70th and final Resolution, August 17, 1723

Why write a book on encouragement? Why not write about something important—like the gospel? Encouragement? Sounds like something right out of our politically correct, pampering culture, or something an ego-stroking motivational speaker would address.

I understand that reaction. So does pastor, author, and seminary professor David Murray. Regarding some gospel-loving Christians’ reluctance to give encouragement, he writes, Sometimes even Reformed Theology, or I should say an imbalanced Reformed Theology could deter expressions of appreciation. ‘Affirming good works? Don’t we believe in total depravity?’ ‘Praising people will only make them proud; isn’t humbling people our aim?’ ‘Soli Deo Gloria! Where does people-praise enter the picture?’1

Let me explain why this book is important. The gospel gloriously reveals the one thing needful—the good news that we, as hell-deserving sinners, can get right with God through the redemptive work of His Son, Jesus Christ. That magnificent truth satisfies our vertical and eternal needs by reconciling us to our Maker, who becomes our eternal Abba Father. What could be more encouraging?

So the questions come: Who, then, needs any more encouraging? Shouldn’t that be enough? And if we put an emphasis on human encouragement, aren’t we robbing God of His due and directing eyes away from Him to people? Why descend from the sublimely vertical and divine to the mundanely horizontal and human?

We do well here to remember the two great commandments: love the Lord with all your strength, and love your neighbor as yourself (see Mark 12:30–31). We are solemnly obligated to love God vertically and, by virtue of the saving work of Christ in our soul by His Spirit, to love one another horizontally. Loving God and loving one another aren’t mutually exclusive, but inseparably intertwined. God’s formula for personal flourishing prescribes a combination of both divine (vertical) and human (horizontal) love.

I was recently strolling a country road in my rural neighborhood. I passed by the home of an elderly Christian woman, Alma, the widow of my farmer friend Roger, who died a few years ago. Roger left Alma alone to care for their son Dale, who struggles with the debilitating effects of a long-ago automobile accident. I spied some rubbish beyond the shoulder of the road in the tall grass lawn on Alma’s property. It was the electrical motor of a garage door opener. Somebody’s jagged trash had ended up in Alma’s tall grass, and I feared that when Alma next mowed her lawn she would blindly drive over it and tear up the blades on her lawn tractor. What a nightmare for a poor widow!

My self-centered instinct was just to walk by. But eventually I saw things clearly. If Alma was to flourish, she needed love. I suppose I could have left a gospel tract in her mailbox and reminded her of God’s divine love in Christ’s sacrifice. But the gospel was calling me to step into her life and practically extend to her my human love by taking action. So I picked up that filthy motor, weighing about twenty-five pounds, and carried it about a quarter mile to my garage, where I tossed it into my trash dumpster.

It reminded me of Boaz during the times of the Judges, who saw the poor widow Ruth hungrily gleaning in his fields. He gave her a gospel-tract blessing by shouting out, "The LORD repay your work, and a full reward be given you by the LORD God of Israel, under whose wings [Hebrew canaf] you have come for refuge (Ruth 2:12). The modern Christianity version of this would be reciting Philippians 4:19: And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. But it could be that Boaz’s blessing sounded a bit hollow in the ears of the Lord, like, Depart in peace, be warmed and filled" (James 2:16).

By the story’s end, we find that God intended for Boaz to incarnate the Lord’s vertical divine love by practically extending his own human horizontal love. God’s call for Boaz to personally provide Ruth’s needs came on the threshing floor when Ruth proposed to Boaz: "I am Ruth, your maidservant. Take your maidservant under your wing [Hebrew canaf], for you are a close relative" (Ruth 3:9). Boaz then married Ruth, caring for her every practical need. The wordplay language profoundly teaches that the Lord’s wings are typically incarnated into people’s helpings. God vertically supplies needs by horizontally enlisting hands.

The jagged motor was hidden in the tall grass. The widow Alma needed love. God provided by enlisting my hands.

Daily, we stroll past our neighbors—both believers and unbelievers. They are needy, just like we are. Their yards are cluttered with the rubble of a sin-cursed world, leaving them discouraged on many levels. Our great commission is to love our neighbors as ourselves by conveying to them the gospel-inspired, Spirit-infused love of God on many levels.

When a Christian couple met two parentless boys in the dirty rubble of a Romanian orphanage, they didn’t just evangelize them—they adopted them. They didn’t just direct them to the heavenly Father, but gave themselves as an earthly father and mother the boys could touch and feel and hear. Filling a believing or unbelieving boy’s love tank with parental love harmonizes beautifully with the gospel and the boy’s ultimate need for divine love. When we find someone in the rubble of discouraging circumstances, gospel love doesn’t call us merely to evangelize them, only directing them to their heavenly Father; we should encourage that person, filling his or her soul with kindhearted brotherly love. Just as human parenting is loving, so also human encouraging is loving.

This is why we have entire books focused on such issues as adopting, parenting, pastoring, befriending, and encouraging from a biblical perspective. The Bible is teeming with revelation that calls us to love one another by mutual encouragement. That is what this book is about.

Our politically correct culture has perversely twisted and contorted this theme of encouragement. Ego-stroking false teachers of the prosperity gospel have heretically and idolatrously abused it. But that is all the more reason for us to biblically reevaluate and examine it. Simply because something is abusable doesn’t mean it is disposable. Grace can be abused, as can church and parental discipline. But we dispose of them to our peril. The same is true of encouragement.

David Murray helps us again: "In light of these substantial personal, societal, and theological obstacles [to encouragement], we need lots of biblical warrant to help us