A Warning For Preachers (and those who listen to them)

While we are on a roll, here is another thought for preachers as we prepare this week. We must remember, "What a preacher is in prayer to God, for himself, for his people, so is his power for real good, so is his true faithfulness and his true fidelity to God, for time and eternity." That is, preaching is too serious to become a mechanical process. It is a spiritual exercise that Thus we are fools to think that can perform spiritual tasks without employing spiritual weapons. But we can become so proficient in our techniques that we lose a sense of the divine. Hear and tremble as E.M Bounds warns, "The scientist loses God in nature. The preacher may lose God in his sermons."

May it never be! I pray that we will not be so familiar with the text or so set on what we want to say that we lose the God revealed in the Word. And I pray that those who listen to us will not be satisfied with merely practical self-help talks that do not reveal the majesty of God to their glory-starved souls. I pray that the atmosphere of our services will be dominated by God and that we will rejoice in what we see and hear to the glory of Christ.

**(Both quotes are taken from E.M. Bounds' Power Through Prayer)