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Showing posts with label minister. Show all posts
Showing posts with label minister. Show all posts

14 April, 2013


Thomas Brooks (Puritan)


Thomas Brooks on the title page of his book The Riches of Christ.

This post  by Thomas Brooks below merged well with my post on April 12 :  Complete & Effective Dominion

 

I mentioned how important it is to test the spirits. A minister who is not breaking your heart with the word of God almost every time he takes the pulpit, there is a strong chance that he has not been hand picked by Him. A real minister of God will cause you to go home somewhat, if not fully offended every time you hear him. Why? Because it is the nature of the true Gospel it offends unbelievers as much as it offends believers that are not right with Him.

 

Sadly, Satan has worked it so nicely for us to make us comfortable with a half truth, that in the Church, we scream “apostasy” when we are offended by the truth of  the Gospel and in our state of spiritual we have no idea that we are led by Satan to react this way. Satan has done such a great job that we love our mediocre preachers, they make us feel good, we agree with them, we say AMEN, HALLELLUJAH! We get all emotional and drunk on “god”   yet, we go back home with the same compartmentalized lives, wrong attitude toward Him, stubborn hearts,  lack of obedience and our rituals that make us feel good because we found “religion”

 

Even on my death bed, I will keep saying over and over again. The reason we are offended by the preaching, the posts or the books that call for examination of our hearts, or to a deeper life and make us feel inadequate is because we are not where we should be. Deep inside of us, we know something is wrong, but we shut if off and slap our mask on again. For a lot of us, often the subtlety of Satan acts like a snooze alarm we keep pressing the button just so we can get a few more minutes of sleep. Before we know it, time passes us by, we get so deep with Satan, and in our slumber it would take a bulldozer to get us out of our lethargy and laziness. By then, it is easier to say Oh! Well God is good!

 

May God have mercy on us!



Thomas Brooks (1608–1680) was an English non-conformist Puritan preacher and author

Consider carefully what you hear." Mark 4:24"

It is sad to see how many preachers in our days, make 
it their business to enrich men's heads with high, empty, 
airy notions; instead of enriching their souls with saving 
truths. 

Fix yourself under that man's ministry, who makes it his 
business, his work to enrich the soul, to win the soul, and 
to build up the soul; not to tickle the ear, or please the 
fancy. This age is full of such light, delirious souls—who 
dislike everything—but what is empty and airy.

Do not judge a minister . . .
  by his voice, nor
  by the multitude who follow him, nor
  by his affected tone, nor
  by his rhetoric and flashes of wit;
but by the holiness, heavenliness, and spiritualness 
of his teaching. Many ministers are like empty orators, 
who have a flood of words—but a drop of matter.

Some preachers affect rhetorical strains; they seek abstrusities, 
and love to hover and soar aloft in dark and cloudy expressions, 
and so shoot their arrows over their hearers' heads—instead of 
bettering their hearers' hearts. Mirthful things in a sermon 
are only for men to gaze upon and admire. He is the best 
preacher, not who tickles the ear—but who breaks the heart.

"My message and my preaching were not with wise and
 persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's
 power, so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom,
 but on God's power." 1 Corinthians 2:4-5