10-02-2008, 09:42 AM
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 | Puritanboard Junior | | Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: Tennessee
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I just received this email this morning from Truth for Life, and I thought it was fitting for this thread. Quote:
Since October is Pastor Appreciation Month, I thought it would be fitting to share this word on preaching from William Taylor in the 19th century:
“Let it never be forgotten, then, that he who would rise to eminence and usefulness in the pulpit, and become ‘wise in winning souls,’ must say of the work of the ministry, ‘This one thing I do.’ He must focus his whole heart and life upon the pulpit. He must give his days and his nights to the production of those addresses by which he seeks to convince the judgments, and move the hearts, and elevate the lives of his hearers.
…In the opinion of the multitudes, the life of a minister is one of ease and leisure. They see him only in the pulpit; and as they mark the apparent ‘abandon’ of his manner, and listen to the easy cadence of his speech, they think that it has cost him little…. But try it, and you will discover that he has acquired that graceful ease only by long and laborious training, and that, for all so simple as it appears to be, he is training every muscle to its utmost, and the whole man is putting forth his energy.”
Richard Baxter said, “It is no small matter to stand up in the face of the congregation, and to deliver a message of salvation or damnation, as from the living God, in the name of the Redeemer. It is no easy matter to speak so plain, that the most ignorant may understand us; and so seriously that the deadest heart may feel us, and so convincingly that those who contradict us may be silenced!”
This month, may I encourage you to encourage the one who labors in the Word and in doctrine on your behalf on a regular basis?
With my love in the Lord Jesus,
Alistair
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__________________
Ryan Barnhart - Pastor of OGBC
Husband to a beautiful wife, Father to two beautiful girls
Student at Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary - B.D.
"I confess to you, that if I can but live and die serving the Lord Jesus, it will make no difference to me whether I am eaten by Cannibals or by worms. And in the Great Day my Resurrection body will rise as fair as yours in the likeness of our risen Redeemer." - John Paton
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