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 […]

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 […]

"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

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 […]

Blue Letter Bible

www.blueletterbible.org For a free web site with thousands of resources, try The Blue Letter Bible site on the web. According to the site, their mission is, “to facilitate in-depth study of God’s Word through an on-line interactive reference library continuously updated from the teachings and commentaries of selected pastors and teachers who hold to the […]

When God Comes To Church

– Raymond C. Ortlund, Jr. One of our finest young pastor/scholars is Raymond C. Ortlund, Jr., a former instructor in Old Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (Deerfield, IL), and now Senior Minister at First Presbyterian Church in Augusta, GA. His book When God Comes To Church (Baker) is a study of nine Old Testament […]

Ten Lies About God

– Erwin W. Lutzer For the past twenty years, Erwin W. Lutzer has been Senior Minister at the Moody Church in Chicago where his messages have gone forth with power. A student of modern culture as well as the ancient Scriptures, Lutzer knows how to put the two together to awaken people to their need […]

Every Day With Jesus

– Gregg Laurie Gregg Laurie, Senior Pastor of the Harvest Christian Fellowship in Riverside, CA, is an anointed preacher of the Word and a gifted writer. He knows how to communicate spiritual truth so that people not only understand it but want to obey it. Every Day With Jesus (Harvest House) contains meaty material to […]