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The Fallibility of Ministers

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Will not ecclesiastical rank and dignity confer infallibility? No—they will not! It matters nothing what a man is called. He may be a Preacher, Minister, or Deacon. He is still a fallible man! Neither the education, nor the anointing oil, nor the laying on of hands, can prevent a man making mistakes. Will not numbers confer infallibility? No—they will not! You may gather together princes by the score, and ministers by the hundred; but, when gathered together, they are still liable to err. You may call them a council, or an assembly, or a conference, or whatever you please. It matters nothing. Their conclusions are still the conclusions of fallible men. Their collective wisdom is still capable of making enormous mistakes. The example of the Apostle Peter at Antioch is one that does not stand alone. It is only a parallel of many a case that we find written for our learning, in Holy Scripture. Do we not remember Abraham, the father of the faithful, following the advice of Sarah, and takin...
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Review Day

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God's faithfulness bears fruit. To be so privileged as to serve our King and Lord by teaching these young minds about the excellencies of Christ is incredibly humbling. In May of 2023, the Lord's work began with just eight students; today, there are now twenty one. In the months that passed, some have left or were taken by their parents to attend conventional Roman Catholic mass, yet more still came. When we first arrived here, we prayed that Father would open doors for us to share the gospel with the families living in this compound. In His wisdom, God sent us the children in answer to our petition. By reaching two generations rather than just one, they will be the ones to deliver the gospel to their homes and save us valuable time.  Their families may not listen to us, but they will surely listen to their children. Since then they have taken up a study of the covenants, and the attributes of God, which the teachers simplified in easy-to-understand format geared towards the ...
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One Soul

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On my way to my fishing hole I kept asking the LORD to send a searching soul to hear the gospel. I had peace He would. He never fails to graciously give what I ask of Him. I often feel this profound, grounded calm; this is what I want to do for the rest of my life. To boast to the world about the wonder of God's unmerited gift: Christ crucified. It brings about a sense of gladness in the soul mixed with terror in the flesh. Knowing that I have to do this but detest attention is a mystery to me. God took this insecure creature out the hole I buried myself in to put me in the last place on earth I would want to be, doing the very thing I would never think of doing. He is so wise. This creature then has nothing to boast of. This nice lady suddenly spoke with me as I parked right by the municipal hall. A kind soul that I couldn't help but repay her kind gesture towards me by treating her to a meal. She was so thankful. May the LORD grant me time to talk with her on my next return....
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The Lepers Who Found Treasure

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And when these lepers came to the edge of the camp, they went into a tent and ate and drank, and they carried off silver and gold and clothing and went and hid them. Then they came back and entered another tent and carried off things from it and went and hid them. Then they said to one another, “We are not doing right. This day is a day of good news. If we are silent and wait until the morning light, punishment will overtake us. Now therefore come; let us go and tell the king's household.” 2 Kings 7:8-9  "At first, the lepers' self-centered disregard for other people was terrible. They cram themselves with food while storing as much spoil as they can. At least in the middle of it all they realized their mistake. Even more concerning is the fact that their actions reflect that of many Christians who reap the rewards of salvation but never spread the gospel to people around them who are in desperate need of the truth. May the Lord help all believers understand their resp...
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That I May Gain Christ

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I now write to commend the LORD on behalf of this young, new believer. A humble grade school teacher who stood on the edge of a decision that would permanently change her course in a life drawn out for her by familial expectations and ambition. For many aspiring teachers like her, the Licensure Exam for Professional Teachers was more than just a test—it was the bridge between her years of study and a future of security. Her parents had placed their hopes in her success, trusting that her career would help carry the weight of the family’s needs. However, something else had been subtly growing inside of her during the year that she had been a student of the Lord: a high regard for the LORD's glory and His commandments. She had repeatedly been reminded that God had made the seventh day specifically His own. The pressure increased steadily in the month before the test. The date of the exam was set. It fell on the Lord's Day. But the Lord has been steadily dealing with her throug...
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Spurgeon on Open Air Preaching

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"I fear that in some of our less enlightened country churches there are conservative individuals who almost believe that to preach anywhere except in the chapel would be a shocking innovation, a sure token of heretical tendencies, and a mark of zeal without knowledge. Any young brother who studies his comfort among them must not suggest anything so irregular as a sermon outside the walls of their Zion.  In the olden times we are told Wisdom crieth without, she uttereth her voice in the streets, she crieth in the chief places of concourse, in the openings of the gates'; but the wise men of orthodoxy would have wisdom gagged except beneath the roof of a licensed building. These people believe in a New Testament which says, Go out into the highways and hedges and compel them to come in, and yet they dislike a literal obedience to the command. Do they imagine that a special blessing results from sitting upon a particular deal board with a piece of straight-up panelling at their b...
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God Preserves A People

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He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart, yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. Ecclesiastes 3:11 The Karen people inhabited northern Thailand and the highlands of Burma (Myanmar) for generations.  A prophecy that was part of their oral traditions stated that the Creator God, Y'wa, had once given them a book that contained His truth. They believed that their forefathers had lost this book long ago as a result of their disobedience to Him.  Tradition told that the missing book would eventually be returned to them by a white brother who would come across the ocean.  Despite not knowing the Bible, they sung old hymns about Y'wa being everlasting, holy, and the creator of everything. This prophecy kept alive a desire for the restoration of truth. Adoniram Judson comes to Burma in 1813, and opened his first public preaching place in 1819. For seven years he labored among the Burmese Buddhists, working on...
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Part 4 - No Apostolic Zeal In Our Day

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Again: we have not enough self-denial; and that is one reason why we do not prosper. Far be it from me to say aught against the self-denial of those worthy brethren who have left their country to cross the stormy deep to preach the Word. We hold them to be men who are to be had in honor; but still, I ask, Where is the self-denial of the apostles now-a-days?  I think one of the greatest disgraces that ever was cast upon the church in those days was that last mission to Ireland. Men went over to Ireland; but, like men who have valor's better part, brave, bold men,—they came back again, which is about all we can say of the matter. Why do they not go there again?  Why, they say the Irish "booed" them. Now, don't you think you see Paul taking a microscope out of his pocket, and looking at a little man who should say to him, "I shall not go there to preach, because the Irish booed me!"  "What!" he says, "is this a preacher? What a small edition of...
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Part 3 - No Apostolic Zeal In Our Day

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We have known men who believed Calvinistic doctrines, but who preached Calvinism in the morning and Arminianism in the evening, because they were afraid God's gospel would not convert sinners, so they would manufacture one of their own.  I hold that a man who does not believe his gospel to be able to save men's souls, does not believe it at all. If God's truth will not save men's souls, man's lies cannot. If God's truth will not turn men to repentance, I am sure there is nothing in this world that can.  When we believe the gospel to be powerful, then we shall see it is powerful.  If I walk into this pulpit, and say, "I know what I preach is true," the world says I am an egotist; "The young man is dogmatical." Aye, and the young man means to be; he glories in it; be keeps it to himself as one of his peculiar titles, for he does most firmly believe what he preaches.  God forbid that I should ever come tottering up the pulpit-stairs to teach a...
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Part 2 - No Apostolic Zeal In Our Day

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We have no eyes now like the eyes of the Saviour, which could weep over Jerusalem: we have few voices like that earnest, impassioned voice, which seemed perpetually to cry,  "Come unto me, and I will give you rest."   "O Jerusalem! Jerusalem! How often would I have gathered thee as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, but ye would not."   If ministers of the gospel were more hearty in their work of preaching; if, instead of giving lectures, and devoting a large part of their time to literary and political pursuits, they would preach the Word of God, and preach it as if they were pleading for their own lives, ah! Then, my brethren, we might expect great success; but we cannot expect it while we go about our work in a half-hearted way, and have not that zeal, that earnestness, that deep purpose, which characterized those men of old.  Then again, I take it, we have not men in our days who can preach like Paul—as to their faith, What did Paul do? He went to Phi...
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Part 1 - No Apostolic Zeal In Our Day

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In the first place, we have not men with Apostolic zeal.  Converted in a most singular way, by a direct interposition from heaven, Paul, from that time forward, became an earnest man. He had always been earnest, in his sin and in his persecutions; but after he heard that voice from heaven, "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me ?" and had received the mighty office of an apostle, and had been sent forth a chosen vessel to the Gentiles, you can scarcely conceive the deep, the awful earnestness which he manifested.  Whether he did eat, or drink, or whatsoever be did, he did all for the glory of his God; he never wasted an hour: he was employing his time either in ministering with his own hands unto his necessities, or else lifting up those hands in the synagogue, on Mars Hill, or anywhere where he could command the attention of the multitude.  His zeal was so earnest, and so burning, that he could not (as we unfortunately do) restrain himself within a little sphere; but he p...
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I Met A Soldier Of The LORD

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I was beaming with gladness and my heart ablaze once again after the LORD led me to find this brother who preaches the glorious gospel in public with his son in the Andes,Peru. Such conviction is aroused by speaking plain truth of the great need of our times. May the LORD advance His kingdom among the people in this place and call them home through this dear brother's labors. Even in the beginning of the LORD's work here in our place we have been praying for the unnamed and unknown missionaries who have left their lives behind to labor in places where Christ has yet to be named. May the LORD answer their prayers. May He give their families comfort. If they are in peril, may the LORD hold their faith and see them through to the end. Oh, what sweet gladness for me to hear these faithful soldiers praise God as they see the face of Christ in the end smiling at them. Ushering them into His eternal promise and rest where they will dwell in the house of the LORD forever. I am granted ...
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The Great Neglect

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To engage in mercy ministry is good. But to neglect the intentional proclamation of the gospel is to affirm that man can indeed live on bread alone. If you give yourself a year in persevering through the difficulty of open air preaching you will realize what commandment you have been neglecting all along. Good doxology ought to follow from sound theology.  A proper appreciation of God's glory inspires awe, which in turn motivates action.  Telling others when we see something wonderful is ingrained in us.  People who claim to know God but could not bring themselves to share him with others demonstrate that no beauty in Christ was ever seen, and as a result, no glory for God is desired.  Doxology is then reduced to lip service rather than action because theology was either improperly taught or improperly comprehended.
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Part 4 - The Peril Of The Minister

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King Solomon levied 150,000 workers (2 Chr 2:17) , enlisting 3,300 overseers (1 Kings 5:16)  and 300 commanders over all (2 Chr 2:18) for the building of the temple. Such a monumental undertaking that required careful preparation and careful attention to detail in order to mobilize a large number of men. The task of the ministers of God should be to prepare the people to partake in the advancement of the greater kingdom that is Christ's as He did bid His followers: "Engage in business till I come"   (Lk 19:13). The same business He mentioned when Joseph and Mary found Him amidst teachers in the temple (Lk 2:49) : "to do the will of Him who sent Me"   (Jn 4:34) . What will? "To give His life a ransom for many"   (Mat 20:28) . To what end? " That they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent" (John 17:3) . Knowing God opens the gates to gospel action - to its proclamation, just as YHWH was the motivation behind...
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Part 3 - The Reformed Pastor by Richard Baxter

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Take heed to yourselves lest you should be void of that saving grace of God which you offer to others, and be strangers to the effectual working of that gospel which you preach; and lest, while you proclaim the necessity of a Saviour to the world, your hearts should neglect him, and you should miss of an interest in him and his saving benefits. Take heed to yourselves, lest you perish while you call upon others to take heed of perishing, and lest you famish yourselves while you prepare their food. Though there be a promise of shining as stars to those that turn many to righteousness (Daniel 12:3) , this is but on supposition that they be first turned to it themselves: such promises are made ceteris paribus, et suppositis supponendis. Their own sincerity in the faith is the condition of their glory simply considered, though their great ministerial labours may be a condition of the promise of their greater glory. Many men have warned others that they come not to that place of torment, ...
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Part 2 - The Minister Must First Be Saved

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To emphasize the standard is not to be mean-spirited, nor should it be viewed as censorious. We exercise the same judgement when trusting our health to the diagnosis of a qualified physician, or place ourselves under the knife of a qualified surgeon. But the ministerial office is qualified by God Himself. Theological schooling is very important. But how do you measure education when in our day, every school claims to be truthful while contradicting each other on doctrinal interpretation? And even so, to be proficient theologically, or to confess to a creed, does not necessarily mean one is spiritually born again. When this requirement is set aside, everyone is ministry is legitimately correct, and the line between mere human knowledge and heaven-sent unction is blurred. *************** We are not among those who accept the apostolical succession of young men simply because they assume it; if their college experience has been rather vivacious than spiritual, if their honours have been c...
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