Marks of Maturity in the Ministry (Part 3)
Dictatorship or leadership. A sixth mark of maturity is this: distinguishing between dictatorship and leadership. Churches rise or fall on leadership. Certainly it is true that all believers are one in Christ; but it is also true that God has set some believers over the local church as spiritual leaders. The church is an organism;
D Is For Dictionary
Serious study takes time and is hard work. When sports writer Red Smith was asked how he kept turning out his excellent newspaper columns, he replied, “You just sit down at your typewriter and open a vein.” Substitute “sermon” for “newspaper column” and “computer” or “desk” for “typewriter” and you have today’s preacher. Maybe the
Even the Lunchroom Lady Eats Lunch
I was sitting at breakfast the other day, eating with one of our college students. He believes God has called him into the ministry, so on occasion, we get together to eat and talk. During the breakfast, he conducted an interview with me on ‘what’s working and what’s not’ for his seminary class. I really
The All You Can Eat Buffet
There’s an incredible emphasis these days on the food we eat. If you go in a grocery store, you’ll find health conscious moms reading the ingredients on everything from Frosted Flakes to Granola. You would think they were reading the Torah. We are obsessed with health in America. Although we are the most obese nation
Eutychus: Sacred Alliterature
The massive advertising campaign for the Ryrie Study Bible has, unfortunately, taken away the attention of the evangelical public from The New Amazing Sermon Bible, known to the trade as the NASB. Published by Alliteration Press, this new edition of the Bible is exactly what the sermonizer needs. Let me describe its many features. Instead
Eutychus: Priming the Preacher
The most valuable lesson I learned in seminary was imparted to me by a professor who stole the idea from John Henry Jowett at an unguarded moment when Jowett was combing his moustache and not paying attention. “If you have trouble getting a sermon from a text,” he advised, “just try to imagine how some
Darwin’s Leap of Faith
Exposing the False Religion of Evolution –John Ankerberg and John Weldon Harvest House Publishers. Darwin’s theory of Evolution is arguably the single most profound theory emphasized by science in the last century. It’s impacts and implications are far reaching. The authors argue that evolution is not an indisputable fact but rather a belief that people
"Never put yourself in the position where you have to evacuate the message in order to accommodate the method." - Vance Havner
"Popularity has killed more prophets than persecution." - Vance Havner
"Error in the pulpit is like fire in the hayloft." - Oswald Chambers
"Preaching about the life of Jesus awakens an immense craving, but it leaves us wiht the luxury of sympathy with ourselves - 'Oh well, I know that is very high and holy, but I was not born that way and God cannot expect that kind of life from me.' We like to hear about the life of Jesus, about His teaching and His works, about His sympathy and tenderness, but when we stand face to face with Him in the light of God and He convicts us of sin, we resent it." - Oswald Chambers
"Concentrate on God's centre in your preaching, and though your crowd may apparently pay no attention, they can never be the same again." - Oswald Chambers
"Where God gives the gift, the 'foolishness of preaching' is still mighty. But best of all is a team of two; one to delivery the preliminary intellectual baragge, and the other to follow up with a direct attack on the heart." - C. S. Lewis, Present Concerns: Essays by C.S. Lewis, page 66.
"Some people accuse us of too much emotionalism. I say we have too little. That is why we are losing church people to other interests. We need not only to capture their minds, we've got to touch their hearts. We've got to make people feel their faith." - Billy Graham
"Paul's message was always Christ. Never seek satisfaction in any doctrine about Jesus. Press through to Him and touch Him for yourself! And don't spend your time explaining theories about Christ. Present Him. Men are not drawn to a doctrine or a phrase with any lasting profit. The sad finish of many a sect bears ample testimony to that. Don't try to attach people to a phrase; get them joined to Christ through saving faith and they are His to stay!" - Vance Havner
"I feel sorry for the church that decides to call a man to the pulpit because 'his personality simply sparkles!'" - A. W. Tozer
"If He should give me a thousand lives, today, and ask me to choose what calling I would have them follow, I would….choose that every one of the thousand lives should be a preacher for Him." - George W. Truett, Follow Thou Me.
Preaching
The Descent of Christ
Ephesians 4:7-11 and Traditional Hebrew Imagery – W. Hall Harris III This is one of several books in the Biblical Studies Library from Baker Books. This volume gives a meticulous and thorough analysis of a very difficult passage. This series offers paperback editions of original monographs of proven academic merit. These works are built around
Mid-Course Correction
– Gordon MacDonald Nelson) is one of this popular author’s best books. It focuses on what to do when the Lord calls you to change course and start moving in a new direction. As you read, you sense immediately that the author is writing out of his own spiritual experience. Regardless of your age or
Witness To The Gospel
– I. H. Marshall , D.P. Petersen (Eerdmans) is a collection of twenty-five essays on the theology of the Book of Acts and what it should mean to the witnessing church today. If you want to get beneath the surface of the Book of Acts, this is the place to start. This is not a
"Christ chose this weapon (the Word) out of all the others, and used it in His earliest conflict, so, too, He used it when no man was near. The value of Holy Scripture is not alone seen in public teaching or striving for truth, its still small voice is equally powerful when the servant of the Lord is enduring personal trial in the lone wilderness. The severest struggles of a true Christian are usually unknown to any buy himself. Not in the family do we meet the most subtle temptations, but in the closet, not in the shop so much as in the recesses of our own spirit do we wrestle with principalities and powers. For these dread duels, 'It Is written' is the best sword and shield. Scripture to convince another man is good; but Scripture is most required to console, defend and sanctify our own soul." - C. H. Spurgeon, Spurgeon's Expository Encyclopedia, Vol.15, p. 222
"The Bible not only explains God, it explains the world in which we live, it explains not only things that are right, but things that are wrong." - Oswald Chambers
"Men do not reject the Bible because they find faults in it, but because it finds faults in them." - Winston Churchill
"We believe that the most scientific view, the most up-to-date and rationalistic conception, will find its fullest satisfaction in taking the Bible story literally." - Winston Churchill
"God's Word is such perfect truth and righteousness that it needs no patching or repair; in its course it makes a perfectly straight line, without any bends in any direction." - Martin Luther
"We have the truth and we need not be afraid to say so." - J. C. Ryle
"If you want to understand the Bible, get on your knees.... You will learn more in one hour of prayerful communion with the Spirit than in a thousand years in all the schools of human culture." - A. T. Pierson
"The Holy Spirit who inspired the Scriptures will expect obedience to the Scriptures, and if we do not give that obedience we will quench him." - A. W. Tozer
The Bible