“The Bible as the Word of God is meant to be read and proclaimed to ourselves and to others. There is a special blessing attached to the proclamation of the Word of God. The Word is powerful and is able to bring about profound and pervasive change as it is used by God in the lives of his people.
I have never been able to understand preachers and teachers who abandon the proclamation of the Scriptures for the proclamation of anything else, like the latest findings of the social sciences, or clips from the latest Hollywood movies. While all of life needs to be discussed in light of what the Scriptures teach, there is no power like the power of God’s Word brought home to the human heart by the power of the Holy Spirit. No amount of cleverness or contemporary relevance will make up for the absence of the faithful proclamation of the Word.”
Unknown
(Each Saturday, ahead of the Lord’s Day, I send out by email a word of encouragement to those who, like me, are called to “preach the word”. There is no higher calling given to anyone than that of regularly preaching the inspired, living word of God and we need to pray for and encourage one another as we seek to live out our calling. If you would like to receive this weekly email, or know a preacher who would be encouraged by this, please let me know via the comments.)
“The Bible as the Word of God is meant to be read and proclaimed to ourselves and to others. There is a special blessing attached to the proclamation of the Word of God. The Word is powerful and is able to bring about profound and pervasive change as it is used by God in the lives of his people.
I have never been able to understand preachers and teachers who abandon the proclamation of the Scriptures for the proclamation of anything else, like the latest findings of the social sciences, or clips from the latest Hollywood movies. While all of life needs to be discussed in light of what the Scriptures teach, there is no power like the power of God’s Word brought home to the human heart by the power of the Holy Spirit. No amount of cleverness or contemporary relevance will make up for the absence of the faithful proclamation of the Word.”
Unknown
(Each Saturday, ahead of the Lord’s Day, I send out by email a word of encouragement to those who, like me, are called to “preach the word”. There is no higher calling given to anyone than that of regularly preaching the inspired, living word of God and we need to pray for and encourage one another as we seek to live out our calling. If you would like to receive this weekly email, or know a preacher who would be encouraged by this, please let me know via the comments.)
“…according to the logic of Scripture, people in ministry are as reliant upon the grace of God as anyone else. Charles Spurgeon describes a striking moment when he recognised this reliance:
“I was riding home, very weary with a long week’s work, when there came to my mind this text: ‘My grace is sufficient for thee’ (2 Corinthians 12:9 KJV): but it came with the emphasis laid upon two words: ‘My grace is sufficient for thee.’ My soul said, ‘Doubtless it is. Surely the grace of the infinite God is more than sufficient for such a mere insect as I am’, and I laughed, and laughed again, to think how far the supply exceeded all my needs. It seemed to me as though I were a little fish in the sea, and in my thirst I said, ‘Alas, I shall drink up the ocean’. Then the Father of the waters lifted up his head sublime, and smilingly replied, ‘Little fish, the boundless main is sufficient for thee.’ “
Charles Spurgeon
Quoted by Andrew Cameron and Brian Rosner in
The Trials of Theology Fearn: Christian Focus, 2010 p12
(Each Saturday, ahead of the Lord’s Day, I send out by email a word of encouragement to those who, like me, are called to “preach the word”. There is no higher calling given to anyone than that of regularly preaching the inspired, living word of God and we need to pray for and encourage one another as we seek to live out our calling. If you would like to receive this weekly email, or know a preacher who would be encouraged by this, please let me know via the comments.)
“The function of the preacher is not to dig down in search of obscure and hidden dogmas; not to weave fine and intricate webs of argument; not to play off the legerdemain of style and unmeaning rhetoric; but seizing the great and necessary truths where all spiritual and eternal reality lies, so to flash them upon the hearts and consciences of men, that they shall be forced to exclaim, like the multitudes on the day of Pentecost, What shall we do? What shall we do?”
William G Blaikie
The Preachers of Scotland Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 2001 p173
(Each Saturday, ahead of the Lord’s Day, I send out by email a word of encouragement to those who, like me, are called to “preach the word”. There is no higher calling given to anyone than that of regularly preaching the inspired, living word of God and we need to pray for and encourage one another as we seek to live out our calling. If you would like to receive this weekly email, or know a preacher who would be encouraged by this, please let me know via the comments.)
“The expositor is only to provide mouth and lips for the passage itself, so that the word may advance…the really great preachers…are, in fact, only the servants of the Scriptures. When they have spoken for a time…the word…gleams within the passage itself and is listened to; the voice makes itself heard. The passage itself is the voice, the speech of God; the preacher is the mouth and the lips, and the congregation…the ear in which the voice sounds. Only in order that the word may advance, may go out into the world, and force its way through enemy walls to the prisoners within is preaching necessary.”
Gustav Wingren
quoted by J R W Stott
in I Believe in Preaching London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1982 p132
(Each Saturday, ahead of the Lord’s Day, I send out by email a word of encouragement to those who, like me, are called to “preach the word”. There is no higher calling given to anyone than that of regularly preaching the inspired, living word of God and we need to pray for and encourage one another as we seek to live out our calling. If you would like to receive this weekly email, or know a preacher who would be encouraged by this, please let me know via the comments.)
Posted by John in Training
Over at the Edinburgh Bible College blog, we have posted the second part of an extract from Paul David Tripp’s book Dangerous Calling, in which he details the dangers of the trend towards specialisation in theological education.
Here’s a taster:
“Academized Christianity, which is not constantly connected to the heart and puts its hope in knowledge and skill, can actually make students dangerous. It arms them with powerful knowledge and skills that can make the students think that they are more mature and godly than they actually are. It arms students with weapons of spiritual warfare that if not used with humility and grace will harm the people they are meant to help.
Permit me to list the things that may happen in the lives of the students when the seminary environment is less than faithful to God’s intention for his Word. I will write just a couple of sentences about each.”
Read the full article here
Posted by John in Training
As previously intimated, most of my blogging is now done over at Edinburgh Bible College, and today I have started a short weekly series looking at the seven distinctives that lie at the heart of the new College – the first being training that is BIBLICAL.
You can seee the whole post here, but here’s the burden on our hearts:
The need of the unbelieving world, the need of the local church, the need of the world of missions – now more than ever – is a generation of men and women who are
- conversant with the whole Bible
- convicted by the truths of the Bible
- convinced of the inerrancy, infalliblity and sufficiency of the Bible
- captivated in their own mind and heart by the Bible
- conformed to the teaching of the Bible
- committed to the ultimate authority of the Bible
- confident in the supernatural power of the Bible
- competent in teaching and preaching their Bible in such a way that doesn’t rob it of its supernatural power
At Edinburgh Bible College we believe that the Bible itself has to be the basis and centre of all we do and teach. During a full two year Diploma course, students will be introduced to the every book of the Bible and will become familiar with its individual structure, theme and message as well as discovering how it contributes to the overall theme and unified message of the Bible.
Students will only be taught by men and women who are uncompromisingly committed to the inerrancy, infallibility, sufficiency and supreme authority of the Scriptures and who, in their teaching model a heart and life that is transformed by, saturated with and committed to the supernatural power of the Scriptures.
After all, that’s the point of BIBLE College, isn’t it?
A brief and pithy word of encouragement as we prepare to preach on the greatest day of the year. Easter blessings to all!
“The Word of God about the Son of God is the means by which the power of God is unleashed to transform lives by the Spirit of God.”
Mark Driscoll
(Each Saturday, ahead of the Lord’s Day, I send out by email a word of encouragement to those who, like me, are called to “preach the word”. There is no higher calling given to anyone than that of regularly preaching the inspired, living word of God and we need to pray for and encourage one another as we seek to live out our calling. If you would like to receive this weekly email, or know a preacher who would be encouraged by this, please let me know via the comments.)
At the start of the year I laid out a carefully thought through plan for regular, organised posting on this blog; something I greatly enjoy and personally benefit from. And then….life kicked in and within a few days all my plans lay in ruins. Such is reality, I guess. So I have reassessed things and this is where I intend to go from here -
I am going to use this blog for book reviews, for my Saturday Barnabas Files and for the occasional other piece.
I am going to blog on issues related to Bible Colleges, training for ministry and all matters related to preparing God’s people for God’s purposes – the strap line of Edinburgh Bible College – on the College’s new blog which you can find here.
At least that’s the plan! Please follow me as you can and pray for me and the developing work of the College.
“Unless he has spent the week with God and received Divine communications, it would be better not to enter the pulpit or open his mouth on Sunday at all….A ministry of growing power must be one of growing experience….Power for work like ours is only to be acquired in secret….The hearers may not know why their minister, with all his gifts, does not make a religious impression on them; but it is because he is not himself a spiritual power.”
James Stalker
qtd. Iain Murray Jonathan Edwards Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1987 p147
(Each Saturday, ahead of the Lord’s Day, I send out by email a word of encouragement to those who, like me, are called to “preach the word”. There is no higher calling given to anyone than that of regularly preaching the inspired, living word of God and we need to pray for and encourage one another as we seek to live out our calling. If you would like to receive this weekly email, or know a preacher who would be encouraged by this, please let me know via the comments.)
