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lucas with the lid off |
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Sunday, January 15, 2006 |
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In my church office, there is a book on the shelf in the room of a newly appointed staff member entitled, "Preaching and Preachers". Thumbing through the yellowed and dog-eared parchment pages, you can catch nuggets of insight into the craft and calling of preaching. But what caught my attention most was this - little tagline printed above the title on the cover page: "To me preaching is the highest, greatest, and most glorious calling to which anyone can ever be called." I adore the power of a good sermon, and fain would sit and listen to any anoined preacher. Yet to exalt the gift of preaching as such may be, in my humble opinon, to miss the unity and diversity of God's body, to misunderstand what it truly means by God's calling. The pulpit is undoubtedly the bastion from which God's Word should be faithfully and fearlessly taught and spoken to all His children. Nothing can warm the heart like a preacher giving a timely reminder of Jehovah Jireh's blessings, and nothing can pierce the conscience like a prophetic rebuke in a sermon on God's wrath. Yet is preaching the highest calling? If it was, should not all those who desire to give of their lives to God enroll in seminaries offering courses in systematic theology, and preaching? Must not all then from young, besides aspriing to become firemen, lawyers, doctors, teachers or anthropologists, eageraly aim to one day stand from the pulpit and deliver God's Word like a minister? Truly I will be most glad when a young child comes up to me and declares he would like to preach one day. Such a desire is God-given! But preaching is, of course, more than just standing before the congregation to deliver a message every week. It is walking the talk, living out the gospel message first and internalising the principles laid out in so many passages in the Bible. Only the Holy Spirit can move through any one man chosen by God to illuminate and speak forth the Scriptures such that it sounds as if it is God Himself speaking. Yet how can anyone lift this undoubtedly important gifting all the way to the stratosphere? I believe that the highest, greatest, and most glorious calling is that which God calls you to. Be it to be a teacher, a housewife, a nurse, a lab assistant, a secretary, a surgeon, if God has Himself led you there by His own personal prompting, and by the Bible, and through the words of brothers and sisters around you, then there can be no doubt that the vocation God has carved out and created just for you is the most glorious one as well. So don't think that you can serve God only in the church. (Argh, this sounds like a relevantmagazine.com article) Posted by lucasho @ 1/15/2006 10:35:00 pm
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Tuesday, January 03, 2006 |
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Only one life, 'Twill soon be past; Only what's done For Christ will last. Posted by lucasho @ 1/03/2006 10:55:00 am
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