The main thing is that God will have his king

Ian Carmichael, our publications director, introduces another of Matthias Media’s four new books and resources…

You’ve probably heard the old saying “the main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing”.

When it comes to ministry, it’s a useful adage that helps us review and stay on track with what we are doing. Have we kept the main thing as the focus? Or have we become distracted by lots of other important-but-not-so-central issues or activities?

In many ways, this is the challenge that lay behind the success of The Trellis and the Vine, where Tony Payne and Colin Marshall reminded us all that the main thing is seeing people grow as disciple-making disciples of the Lord Jesus through prayerfully teaching them the Bible. The book struck a nerve because pastors and church leaders could see that they had subtly moved from spending time on the vine to spending time on trellises.

But it’s not just an issue for churches. Christian publishing houses can fall prey to the same issue.

That’s why we’re grateful that a number of our good friends gently remind us here at Matthias Media when we haven’t produced any new Bible study guides for a while. These friends know that at our core we want to help people engage with God’s word—particularly in an expository way—in small groups, one-to-one, and individually.

But, to be honest, it can be hard. Bible study guides rarely become best-sellers. As a publisher, they also don’t tend to be as exciting to produce (even just at the level of having less creative freedom with the cover designs). There’s also the difficulty that some of the parts of Scripture we haven’t covered yet are a bit harder to recruit authors to write studies on. (Any volunteers for Lamentations? Although happily I think I may have found someone to do Leviticus!)

But we keep plugging away with our two main expository Bible study series, Pathway Bible Guides and Interactive Bible Studies. It’s a long term, but extremely important, project that we remain committed to.

Earlier this year we published Remember the Rock (six studies on the book of Joshua). Now we’re delighted to be launching God Will Have His King (nine studies on 1 Samuel) by Desmond Smith.

1 Samuel, of course, is a fascinating and gripping story of God’s anointed kings in Israel, and is full of odd and intriguing details. But 1 Samuel also points us forward to a time one thousand years after Israel asked for a king “like all the nations”. A time when God finally gives them a king unlike any nation before them—a king who uses his authority not to serve himself, but to serve others. A king who came not to take but to give. A king who came to give his life as a ransom for many and to bring forgiveness and redemption.

Please pray that these new studies, like all the Interactive Bible Studies that have come before them, will be used by God to grow people in their knowledge of the Bible and their trust in its author.

Order God Will Have His King online: Matthias Media (AUS), Matthias Media (USA), or 10ofThose (UK).