Almost every pastor has a unique treasury upon which few have the privilege to gaze. Before I tell you what it is, I want to give you some background on how I uncovered it.
Over the years, I have been an itinerant preacher and have spoken in over 1,000 churches from almost all denominations. I learned that itinerating has a predictable routine.
I would arrive at an airport, and a friendly stranger would meet me and drive me to a hotel. After I had freshened up, my hosts would pick me up and take me to dinner. After dinner, they would drop me back at the hotel and pick me up in the morning to take me to church. That’s when I would meet with the pastor and his leadership and have a short time of corporate prayer.
Around that time, the pastor often asked me: “What would you like to do in-between services?” And that’s when I asked him, “Where is your library?” His face would light up, and he would proudly take me into his inner sanctuary and show me his treasure house.
Between the services, I would excitedly rush into the treasure house and search through the pastor’s many books. And here’s the key to finding those quotes I was talking about. I would use my nose to sniff them out. When books are over 100 years old, they have a particular smell. These were the books I was looking for. I would carefully pick them up and go to the chapter-heading page, looking for anything that sounded like keys to reaching the unsaved, like “How to See True Repentance” or “How to Awaken the Ungodly.” I would open that chapter, and there they were. The precious gems! They were quotes that had been underlined in pencil many years ago. This happened consistently. The long-gone owners of these books had been excited by the exact words that excited me because the same Spirit that dwelt in them dwelt in me.
I would then go to a photocopier and copy that page. That’s how I would take pearls of great wisdom from preachers and include them in my books.
I still treat those precious gems I took from these libraries with reverence. Here are a few I found. I hope you value them as highly as I do. This one is from Charles Spurgeon:
“Lower the Law, and you dim the light by which man perceives his guilt. This is a very serious loss to the sinner, rather than a gain; for it lessens the likelihood of his conviction and conversion … I say you have deprived the gospel of its ablest auxiliary [most powerful weapon] when you have set aside the Law. You have taken away from it the schoolmaster that is to bring men to Christ … they will never accept grace till they tremble before a just and holy Law. Therefore the Law serves a most necessary and blessed purpose, and it must not be removed from its place.”
A.B. Earl wrote, “I have found by long experience that the severest threatenings of the Law of God have a prominent place in leading men to Christ. They must see themselves lost before they will cry for mercy; they’ll not escape danger until they see it.”
Martin Luther warned, “The first duty of the gospel preacher is to declare God’s Law and to show the nature of sin.”
So dear pastor, proudly appreciate your treasury. Keep reading good books and share their wisdom with your flock. Let the dead speak. Many a treasure is lost when we overlook the faithfulness of saints who’ve gone before us.
©2023 Ray Comfort. Used with permission.
The post The Pastor’s Treasury: His Library appeared first on Focus on the Family.
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Over the years, I have been an itinerant preacher and have spoken in over 1,000 churches from almost all denominations. I learned that itinerating has a predictable routine.
I would arrive at an airport, and a friendly stranger would meet me and drive me to a hotel. After I had freshened up, my hosts would pick me up and take me to dinner. After dinner, they would drop me back at the hotel and pick me up in the morning to take me to church. That’s when I would meet with the pastor and his leadership and have a short time of corporate prayer.
Around that time, the pastor often asked me: “What would you like to do in-between services?” And that’s when I asked him, “Where is your library?” His face would light up, and he would proudly take me into his inner sanctuary and show me his treasure house.
A special secret
Between the services, I would excitedly rush into the treasure house and search through the pastor’s many books. And here’s the key to finding those quotes I was talking about. I would use my nose to sniff them out. When books are over 100 years old, they have a particular smell. These were the books I was looking for. I would carefully pick them up and go to the chapter-heading page, looking for anything that sounded like keys to reaching the unsaved, like “How to See True Repentance” or “How to Awaken the Ungodly.” I would open that chapter, and there they were. The precious gems! They were quotes that had been underlined in pencil many years ago. This happened consistently. The long-gone owners of these books had been excited by the exact words that excited me because the same Spirit that dwelt in them dwelt in me.
I would then go to a photocopier and copy that page. That’s how I would take pearls of great wisdom from preachers and include them in my books.
I still treat those precious gems I took from these libraries with reverence. Here are a few I found. I hope you value them as highly as I do. This one is from Charles Spurgeon:
“Lower the Law, and you dim the light by which man perceives his guilt. This is a very serious loss to the sinner, rather than a gain; for it lessens the likelihood of his conviction and conversion … I say you have deprived the gospel of its ablest auxiliary [most powerful weapon] when you have set aside the Law. You have taken away from it the schoolmaster that is to bring men to Christ … they will never accept grace till they tremble before a just and holy Law. Therefore the Law serves a most necessary and blessed purpose, and it must not be removed from its place.”
A.B. Earl wrote, “I have found by long experience that the severest threatenings of the Law of God have a prominent place in leading men to Christ. They must see themselves lost before they will cry for mercy; they’ll not escape danger until they see it.”
Martin Luther warned, “The first duty of the gospel preacher is to declare God’s Law and to show the nature of sin.”
So dear pastor, proudly appreciate your treasury. Keep reading good books and share their wisdom with your flock. Let the dead speak. Many a treasure is lost when we overlook the faithfulness of saints who’ve gone before us.
©2023 Ray Comfort. Used with permission.
The post The Pastor’s Treasury: His Library appeared first on Focus on the Family.
Continue reading...