Category: Pastoral Ministry (Page 6 of 7)

Duty & Glory

March 25, 2013 / admin

“We all have our dreams, aspirations and ambitions. But has it ever struck you that the only glory you can ever bring to God is to do His will, in His way, in His time, by His strength? I can’t give God glory by doing your job. You can’t give Him glory by finishing my assignment. Neither one of us can glorify God by doing Billy Graham’s duty.

There is no greater glory you can bring to God than finishing the work He has called you to. I can only glorify God by knowing and completing His individual will for my life. Along that path we each will face resistance and suffer attack. If you are contemplating backing off, giving in or jumping ship, consider this—its not just self-protection you are considering, you are attempting to rob God of the glory due His name.” (p.143, Revival in the Rubble)

Division & Discipline

November 29, 2012 / admin

“But avoid foolish controversies, genealogies, dissensions, and quarrels about the law, for they are unprofitable and worthless. As for a person who stirs up division, after warning him once and then twice, have nothing more to do with him, knowing that such a person is warped and sinful; he is self-condemned.” (Titus 3:9-11)

OK, clear enough. But just what would that look like in action?

Here’s something to consider: Titus discipline process

How Long to Make a Sermon?

September 27, 2012 / admin

“Preaching is not the performance of an hour. It is the outflow of a life. It takes twenty years to make a sermon, because it takes twenty years to make the man. The true sermon is a thing of life. The sermon grows because the man grows. The sermon is forceful because the man is forceful. The sermon is holy because the man is holy. The sermon is full of the divine unction because the man is full of the divine unction.” (E.M. Bounds, Power Through Prayer, p.8)

The Ready Tongue

September 24, 2012 / admin

“The Lord GOD has given me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with a word him who is weary. Morning by morning he awakens; he awakens my ear to hear as those who are taught.” (Isaiah 50:4)

“The tongue filled with the appropriate word for ministry is the product of the ear filled with the word of God … The morning by morning appointment is not a special provision or demand related to the perfect Servant but is the standard curriculum for all disciples.” (J. Alec Motyer, The Prophecy of Isaiah, p.399)

Servants of the Gospel

October 31, 2011 / admin

“This is the gospel . . . of which I, Paul, have become a servant.” (Colossians 1:23, NIV)

We often speak of being servants of Christ, servants of God or even being servants of one another for Christ’s sake. But how often do we think of ourselves as servants of the gospel?

These words of Paul take my mind back to Luke’s words as he opens his Gospel. He spoke of men who were “servants of the word” (Luke 1:2).

What do servants do?

What they are told!

How do servants think?

As their master does!

How do servants spend their time?

In whatever way their master demands!

Ponder that again: servants of the gospel; servants of the word.

The gospel gives the orders. We rise and obey.

The gospel sends the signals. We watch, looking for our cues (“as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master,” Psalm 123:2, ESV).

We jump at the gospel’s bidding.

The gospel is in charge.

The gospel determines.

The gospel issues assignments, tasks and duties.

The gospel determines where we live, how we live, under what conditions we live.

Aren’t those the things a master does?

Sounds strange, perhaps, to our American Christian ears. I wonder what would happen if we truly understood just how good the good news of the gospel really is? Perhaps we’d better understand the spiritual reflex of service which the gospel, rightly understood, woos from us.