Ministry

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

A Testimony of Revival – William Bramwell

I had not discoursed long when the congregation melted into tears. This abated for a few minutes, till a little boy about seven or eight years of age cried out exceeding piteously indeed and wept as though his little heart would break. I asked the little boy what he cried for. He answered ‘my sins !’ I then asked him what he wanted. He answered, “Christ!”

Others were so earnest for a discovery of the Lord to their souls that their eager crying obliged me to stop, and I prayed over them, as I saw their agonies and distress increase. Oh, the distress and anguish of their souls! oh, the pains that were upon them!

Many of the assembled were deeply affected, groaning and sobbing; there was a great weeping and mourning.

– William Bramwell –

Praying Against Idols – Andrew Bonar

Tried this morning especially to pray against idols in the shape of my books and studies. These encroach upon my direct communion with God, and need to be watched.

– Andrew Bonar –
from Andrew Bonar: Diary & Life (Saturday, September 7, 1850)

Pray For Your Pastor – Charles Spurgeon

Ye who love God, of every place and every denomination, wrestle for your ministers; pray for them; for why should not God even now pour out his Spirit? What is the reason why we are to be denied Pentecostal seasons? Why not this hour, as one mighty band, fall down before him and entreat him, for his Sons’ sake, to revive his drooping church? Then would all men discern that we are verily the disciples of Christ.

– Charles Spurgeon –