Ministry

A Tongue Like Thunder – Robert Murray M’Cheyne

As I was walking in the fields, the thought came over me with almost overwhelming power, that every one of my flock must soon be in heaven or hell. Oh how I wished that I had a tongue like thunder, that I might make all hear; or that I had a frame like iron, that I might visit every one and say, “Escape for thy life! Ah sinner! You little know how I fear that you will lay the blame of your damnation at my door.”

– Robert Murray M’Cheyne –

You Must Have the Spirit – Charles Spurgeon

A church in the land without the Spirit is rather a curse than a blessing. If you have not the Spirit of God, Christian worker, remember that you stand in somebody else’s way; you are a fruitless tree standing where a fruitful tree might grow.

– Charles Spurgeon –

Have a Strong Love for Perishing Sinners – Charles Spurgeon

Oh that you might have such a strong love for perishing sinners that you will put up with their rebuffs and rebukes, and say to them, “Strike me if you will, but hear me; ridicule me, but still I will plead with you; cast me under your feet as though I were the offscouring of all things, but at any rate, I will not let you perish, if it be in my power to warn you of your danger.”

– Charles Spurgeon –
from Council for Christian Workers

The Real Strength of a Church – PT Forsyth

Most people make so little personal use of the Bible that they do not know if an interesting preacher is preaching the Gospel or not. The real strength of a church is not the amount of its work but the quality of its faith. One man who truly knows his Bible is worth more to a church’s real strength than a crowd of workers who do not.

– PT Forsyth –
from Lectures on the Church and the Sacraments

A flame of Fire – Jim Elliot

Psalms 104:4; “He makes his ministers a flame of fire.” Am I ignitable? God deliver me from the dread asbestos of “other things.” Saturate me with the oil of the Spirit that I may be a flame.

– Jim Elliot –
from his journal, July 7, 1948

Preaching Christ Changes the Heart – Thomas Brooks

The teaching of this and that opinion may please a man’s fancy, but it is only the preaching of Christ that changes the heart, that conquers the heart, that turns the heart. Peter, by preaching a crucified Christ, converts three thousand souls at once.

– Thomas Brooks –

A Tender Love for Your People – Richard Baxter

Most people judge the counsel they receive by the way they receive the affection of their counselor. See that you feel a tender love for your people, and then let them feel it by your speeches and see it in your dealings with them … Let them see that all you do is for their own sakes and not for your own end.

– Richard Baxter –
1615-1691