FAIR SUNSHINE

The bulk of the clergy was no longer favourable to him, and regarded him with suspicion as an enthusiast and a fanatic. They were especially scandalized by his preaching the doctrine of regeneration or the new birth, as a thing which many baptized persons greatly needed! The number of pulpits to which he had access rapidly diminished. Churchwardens, who had no eyes for drunkenness and impurity, were filled with intense indignation about what they called “breaches of order.” Bishops, who could tolerate Arianism, Socinianism, and Deism, were filled with indignation at a man who declared fully the atonement of Christ and the work of the Holy Ghost, and began to denounce him openly. In short, from this period of his life, Whitefield’s field of usefulness within the Church of England narrowed rapidly on every side.   The step which at this juncture gave a turn to the whole current of Whitefield’s ministry was his adoption of the system of open-air preaching. Seeing that thousands ...

Leonard Ravenhill wrote, "No man is greater than his prayer life.  The pastor who is not praying is playing; the people who are not praying are straying.  The pulpit can be a shop-window to display one’s talents; the prayer closet allows no showing off. Poverty-stricken as the Church is today in many things, she is most stricken here, in the place of prayer.  We have many organizers, but few agonizers;  many players and payers, few pray-ers; many singers, few clingers; lots of pastors, few wrestlers; many fears, few tears; much fashion, little passion; many interferers, few intercessors; many writers, but few fighters.  Failing here, we fail everywhere." The great saints of God labored in prayer.  George Whitefield said, “Whole nights and weeks have I spend in intercession before God.”  John Wesley would rise every morning at 4 AM to seek God for the first four hours of his day.  David Wilkerson “tithed” his day to the Lord by spending the ...

This afternoon's silence, after a gentle downpour, is humbling. I can almost hear my thoughts, to which a great part of has more questions than meditations, God alone knows how much a concern my walk with him is, and I would dare not bring myself to be comfortable at the end of the day, even if that is such the case at work, when all the cares of business and family matters rob me of my personal time with him. I also dare not rest on the work at hand, which is currently street witnessing and preaching, and call it a work unto the Lord - because the first commandment is not to preach the gospel, but it is "to love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, soul, mind and strength," I am well aware that I can obey dutifully without loving the Lord. I can lay claim that what I do is for his glory - but what does the Lord think of me? As a worshiper? There have been a number of times that I have withdrawn from social media, going as far as to deem them a loss of time...