| Thank God for the Preacher | ||
|
In my years of going to church I have had opportunity to hear the preaching and teaching of many wonderful men and women of God. There are those few that I will carry in my heart forever because of all that they taught me. Though some of them are gone on to be with the Lord, it is the messages that they preached that changed my life. Yes, sometimes harsh messages, sometimes tough, but they were always loving. They taught me the difference between right and wrong and that there is such a thing as sin. They taught me that there are consequences for your actions. They taught me that there is both a Heaven and a Hell. They weren’t afraid to teach about Hell and to teach that for those who choose not to serve the Lord and obey His laws, they will spend eternity in the flames of Hell. You don’t hear that taught much in this day and age. But the preachers I learned from were more concerned about saving your soul than whether or not they offended you. They knew it was their calling, their duty, to tell you these things, no matter how difficult it was for them, no matter how much they were ridiculed or how much they were mocked or made fun of. It didn’t matter to them. All they knew was that they were called. They were chosen to bring us this Precious Word of God and they took that calling very seriously. They knew that if they didn’t preach ‘Thus saith the Lord’, that your blood would be on their hands. I can remember a great man of God once sharing how after God would put a particularly strong, tough message on his heart, he would be in his room at night, literally rolling in the floor and crying out to God, “Oh God, are you sure this is what you want me to preach? Lord, you know the people are not going to like this message. Lord, I wonder if they will reject it or if they will accept it, Oh Lord? Surely there must be someone else who can preach this message to them; surely I am not the one You want to use.” But God would speak to his heart and tell him that there was a reason he was chosen to preach a particular message at a particular time. And though he may not have known what that reason was then, he would know in eternity. So, preach he did. So, preach they all did. Powerful words. Strong, anointed messages. With all their heart, with all their soul, with all their might. Surely there must be a very special place in Heaven reserved for those preachers who were not afraid to take a stand, who were not concerned about being politically correct, who were not afraid to speak out against sin, but whose only desire was to see all those that were lost come to know Jesus. I don’t know if there could be a more difficult, yet more rewarding calling, than that of a preacher. I do know that I could never repay all those wonderful men and women of God in my life that gladly accepted their calling to preach the Word. It is because of their willingness to do so that I am a child of God today. Thank you Bro. Holloway, Bro. Donny, Bro. Charles, Bro. Sims, Bro. Livingston, Sis. Kile…… Preach on, Preacher, Preach on! |
||
|